Meaning in Life: Intelligibility-based Narrativity vs. Value

Iddo Landau (University of Haifa)

 

Abstract
Two competing views on what constitutes life’s meaning are the value view and the intelligibility view. According to the value view (e.g., Wolf 2010; Metz 2013, 219–248), life’s meaning is determined by some ways in which a life is valuable. According to the intelligibility view (e.g., Repp 2018; Thomas 2019), life’s meaning is determined by some ways in which a life is intelligible. In this paper I critically discuss a version of the intelligibility view, the intelligibility-based narrativity view (e.g., Goldman 2018; 2022; Weber-Guskar 2023), according to which what makes a life meaningful is a coherent narrative that describes it. I suggest that the intelligibility-based narrativity view is too problematic to accept, and that the value view is, at present, the best theory for explaining what makes a life meaningful.

Redner
Iddo Landau ist Professor für Philosophie an der Universität Haifa, Israel. Er ist spezialisiert auf die Philosophie des Sinns im Leben und die Debatte um Optimismus und Pessimismus. Im Jahr 2025/26 ist sie Fellow am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.

Teilnahme
Geschlossene Veranstaltung. Kontakt: Beate Sutterlüty; E-Mail: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de