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The Meaning of Life : A Very Short Introduction by Terry Eagleton is a philosophy book available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Meaning of Life : A Very Short Introduction about?

The phrase "the meaning of life" for many seems a quaint notion fit for satirical mauling by Monty Python or Douglas Adams. But in this spirited Very Short Introduction, famed critic Terry Eagleton takes a serious if often amusing look at the question and offers his own surprising answer. Eagleton first examines how centuries of thinkers and writers--from Marx and Schopenhauer to Shakespeare, Sartre, and Beckett--have responded to the ultimate question of meaning. He suggests, however, that it is only in modern times that the question has become problematic. But instead of tackling it head-on, many of us cope with the feelings of meaninglessness in our lives by filling them with everything from football to sex, Kabbala, Scientology, "New Age softheadedness," or fundamentalism. On the other hand, Eagleton notes, many educated people believe that life is an evolutionary accident that has no intrinsic meaning. If our lives have meaning, it is something with which we manage to invest them, not something with which they come ready made. Eagleton probes this view of meaning as a kind of private enterprise, and concludes that it fails to holds up. He argues instead that the meaning of lif

Who reads The Meaning of Life : A Very Short Introduction?

Author

Terry Eagleton

Publisher

OUP Oxford

Published

2008

Language

EN

ISBN

9780199210701

Category

philosophy

Subjects

Fiction, Psychology, Religion

Rating

3.5 / 5 (205 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14