I just posted a link to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. As you probably already know, I make my living teaching and writing philosophy. If I were on a desert island with nothing but my laptop, and I could access only one web site, this would be my second choice. (What would be my first choice? Let your imagination run wild!). The SEP is by far the best philosophy reference on the internet, and probably the best in any medium. And if it’s the best today, it’s safe to say that it’s the best in all of human history. But anyway, it’s my go-to resource when I’m in the beginning stages of thinking about any philosophical issue: thousands of articles by experts on almost any philosophical topic, including the meaning of life.
Thanx much for the Stanford link; it will provide me with much enjoyment.
I hope that you might get some enjoyment out of my MySpace blog link; it has a selection of poetry, 17 nonfiction essays (mainly philosophical), and a dozen short stories. I parked the stuff there so I wouldn’t have to retype it if my puter fried.
Enjoy (or not, as the case may be; you most probably have a surfeit of such stuff you must peruse from your own student).
Interesting link. I perused the Meaning of Life article. It seemed to ignore the one meaning that we use around the dinner table here – the meaning of life is successful procreation.
Right… The article does cite Murphy’s (1982) book: Evolution, Morality, and the Meaning of Life, Totowa: Rowman and Littlefield – although in a couple of other contexts. My guess is that the procreation view would be discussed there. The biggest problem with view itself, on the surface at least, is that if procreation is the meaning of life, then people who don’t (or can’t) procreate are doomed to lived meaningless lives. And that’s an implication that most people (who believe that life has a meaning or purpose at all) would probably not accept.