Meaning of It All

This witty, poignant work sheds light on the role that value, religion, the cosmos, death, and time play in the meaning of our lives, and how best to live a meaningful, mortal life in time. You can stock your life with important work, relationships, activities, and art, and yet, you can still ask: what's the point of it all? Almost every thinking person has had that question—many more than once. Granted, you're more likely to worry about the point of life when things are not going well, but you're also likely to still ask this question when you've finally received that promotion, achieved a goal, or raised your children—exactly when it seems like the question shouldn't arise. In The Meaning of It All, Rivka Weinberg argues this is because there are different kinds of meaning, and some of them are impossible to achieve. She explains what they are, illuminates which types of meaning are possible, which are impossible, and shows us how we might orient our lives in light of these bittersweet truths. Although we all die in the end, Weinberg explains why death doesn't make life more or less meaningful. Instead, it is time that is necessary for meaning, even as it also undermines it by wearing away the fruits of our efforts and commitments. Without time, life would lack causality and direction; our efforts would be senseless, meaningless. Weinberg shows that most advice on how to reduce the agony of time's erosions cannot work. However, she also shows how we can tease out some insights from failed attempts to escape time's wounds and thereby make progress toward coping with things as they are. A meaningful life is one lived in the fullness of time, accepting finitude, acknowledging our tragic losses and limitations, and making the most of Everyday Meaning.

Rivka Weinberg is Professor of Philosophy and Mary W. and J. Stanley Johnson Chair in the Humanities at Scripps College. She is the author of The Risk of A Lifetime: How, When, and Why Procreation May Be Permissible (OUP 2016). Weinberg specializes in ethical and metaphysical issues regarding procreation, birth, death, and meaning.