Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 484
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4422-5831-0 • Hardback • March 2016 • $166.00 • (£129.00)
978-1-4422-5833-4 • Paperback • March 2016 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-4422-5832-7 • eBook • March 2016 • $95.00 • (£73.00)
David Benatar is professor of philosophy at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1
THE MEANING OF LIFE
Richard Taylor, The Meaning of Life
Thomas Nagel, The Absurd
Richard Hare, ‘Nothing Matters’
W.D. Joske, Philosophy and the Meaning of Life
Robert Nozick, Philosophy and the Meaning of Life
David Schmidtz, The Meanings of Life
Susan Wolf, The Meanings of Lives
Chapter 2
CREATING PEOPLE
Derek Parfit, Whether Causing Someone to Exist Can Benefit This Person
John Leslie, Why Not Let Life Become Extinct?
James Lenman, On Becoming Extinct
David Benatar, Why it is Better Never to Come into Existence
Chapter 3
DEATH
Stephen E. Rosenbaum, How to be Dead and Not Care: A Defense of Epicurus
George Pitcher, The Misfortunes of the Dead
Steven Luper, Annihilation
Fred Feldman, Some Puzzles About the Evil of Death
Frederick Kaufman, Pre-Vital and Post-Mortem Non-Existence
David B. Suits, Why Death is not Bad for the One who Died
Chapter 4
IMMORTALITY
James Lenman, Immortality: A letter
Bernard Williams, The Makropulos case: reflections on the tedium of immortality
John Martin Fischer, Why Immortality is Not So Bad
Christine Overall, From here to eternity: Is it good to live forever?
Chapter 5
SUICIDE
David Hume, Of Suicide
Immanuel Kant, Suicide and Duty
David Benatar, Suicide: A Qualified Defence
Chapter 6
OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM
Margaret A. Boden, Optimism
Samantha Vice, Optimism and Meaning
Bruce N. Waller, The sad truth: optimism, pessimism, and pragmatism
Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Suffering of the World
The selection of papers is excellent....Benatar has done a first rate job in fulfilling, and when necessary balancing, all those requirements and has produced an exceptionally good, interesting and informative collection of papers. Students and educated laypersons who read through the anthology will become familiar with some of the best and most representative works in the field which include many of the most central and important arguments on the issues discussed....This collection should prove to be an important contribution to the development of the discussion on Analytic Existentialism.
— Methodology and Research Technology
The book is aimed at philosophy students, and is engaging.
— Paradigm Explorer
Students and educated laypersons who read through the anthology will become familiar with some of the best and most representative works in the field which include many of the most central and important arguments on the issues discussed. While the articles are interesting and of a very high academic level, they are not too technical, too long, or otherwise difficult for students or the educated public to follow. Although there are already some anthologies that discuss the meaning of life, none relate the topic to questions of immortality, death, suicide, or the benefit of coming into existence as this one does.
— Iddo Landau; Metapsychology Online
“David Benatar has done a superb job in bringing together this fine collection, now in its third, expanded and revised, edition. Life, Death and Meaning is quite simply the best anthology of writings on ‘analytic existentialism’ available. It has a place on every serious philosophy student’s bookshelf.”
— Geoffrey Scarre, Professor of Philosophy, Durham University
-Covers a unique range of topics covered by no other book.
-Deals with the "big questions," which are of concern and interest to all thinking people.
-Introductory summaries of each constituent article.
-Study questions
-Suggestions for further readings.
- Updated essays by David Schmidtz on the multiple meanings of life and Christine Overall on immortality.
- New essays by Susan Wolf on the question of the meaning of life and Samantha Vice on optimism.
- Revised Preface and Introduction by David Benatar
- Expanded selection of titles for further reading including the latest scholarship.