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Conceptualizing great meaning in life: Metz on the good, the true, and the beautiful

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2012

IDDO LANDAU
IDDO LANDAU*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Haifa University, Haifa 31905, Israel e-mail: ilandau@research.haifa.ac.il
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Abstract

This article is a reply to Thaddeus Metz's ‘The good, the true, and the beautiful’ (2011). I suggest that Metz's theory is too broad since it entails that merely understanding Einstein's or Darwin's views can make a life highly meaningful. Furthermore, it is unclear whether ‘fundamental conditions’, toward which highly meaningful lives are oriented, may or may not be necessary conditions to ‘non-fundamental conditions’, how completely the former should explain the latter, and whether Metz's account is indeed non-consequentialist. While acknowledging the importance of Metz's contribution, I consider alternative directions that future research might take.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 2013 , pp. 505 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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