The Human Predicament

The Human Predicament
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 289
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780190633837
ISBN-13 : 0190633832
Rating : 4/5 (37 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Human Predicament by : David Benatar

Download or read book The Human Predicament written by David Benatar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-05 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, to hasten our deaths by suicide? Many people ask these big questions -- and some people are plagued by them. Surprisingly, analytic philosophers have said relatively little about these important questions about the meaning of life. When they have tackled the big questions, they have tended, like popular writers, to offer comforting, optimistic answers. The Human Predicament invites readers to take a clear-eyed and unfettered view of the human condition. David Benatar here offers a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism about the central questions of human existence. He argues that while our lives can have some meaning, we are ultimately the insignificant beings that we fear we might be. He maintains that the quality of life, although less bad for some than for others, leaves much to be desired in even the best cases. Worse, death is generally not a solution; in fact, it exacerbates rather than mitigates our cosmic meaninglessness. While it can release us from suffering, it imposes another cost - annihilation. This state of affairs has nuanced implications for how we should think about many things, including immortality and suicide, and how we should think about the possibility of deeper meaning in our lives. Ultimately, this thoughtful, provocative, and deeply candid treatment of life's big questions will interest anyone who has contemplated why we are here, and what the answer means for how we should live.


The Human Predicament Related Books

The Human Predicament
Language: en
Pages: 289
Authors: David Benatar
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-05-05 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Are our lives meaningful, or meaningless? Is our inevitable death a bad thing? Would immortality be an improvement? Would it be better, all things considered, t
Living Untethered
Language: en
Pages: 200
Authors: Michael A. Singer
Categories: Self-Help
Type: BOOK - Published: 2022-05-10 - Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Now a New York Times bestseller! The book you need right now is finally here! From beloved spiritual teacher Michael A. Singer—author of the #1 New York Times
Better Never to Have Been
Language: en
Pages: 250
Authors: David Benatar
Categories: Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Most people believe that they were either benefited or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. David Benatar presents a startling challenge to thes
The Human Predicament in Hardy's Novels
Language: en
Pages: 223
Authors: Jagdish Chandra Dave
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2016-02-25 - Publisher: Springer

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Philosophy, Humor, and the Human Condition
Language: en
Pages: 314
Authors: Lydia Amir
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-12-19 - Publisher: Springer Nature

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents an original worldview, Homo risibilis, wherein self-referential humor is proposed as the path leading from a tragic view of life to a liberat