On Meanings of Life

Jerome Eckstein

Description

Addressing the question of what makes life meaningful, Jerome Eckstein explores the ways in which we can heighten or diminish the quality of our life experience. He focuses on two contrasting attitudes toward life experiences: "interested" (goal-oriented) and "intraested" (non-goal-oriented, i.e., something directed only at itself) and shows that both attitudes are important and necessary in order to make life meaningful. Philosophy, psychology, religion, myth, poetry, and music are all brought to bear on such specific life-meaning issues as work, play, love, art, neurosis, and happiness, and in a touching epilogue, Eckstein discusses his own life meanings in terms of metaphysical loneliness, laughter, and dignity.
Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Intraestedness and Meanings of Life

2. Excursus to Objectivity and Postmodernism

3. Suicide and Meanings of Life

4. Uncertainty, Religion, and Meanings of Life

5. Wholeness: Primordial and Vicarial

6. Epilogue

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Philosophie de la religion
• Santé et bien-être
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Bien-être émotionnel
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Bien-être
• Judaism
• Philosophy of religion
• Assertiveness
• motivation

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 février 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780791488041
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

On Meanings of Life

On Meanings of Life

Their Nature and Origin

JEROME ECKSTEIN

State University of New York Press

Quotations in chapter 5 from DUINO ELEGIES by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by David Young. Copyright © 1978 by W. W. Norton & Inc. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 2002 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

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For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207

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Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Eckstein, Jerome. On meanings of life : their nature and origin / Jerome Eckstein. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-5481-9 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-7914-5482-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Life. 2. Meaning (Philosophy) I. Title.

BD435.E25 2002 128—dc21

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

2002021023

To Jeffrey Berman, W. Scott Hicks, Howard Joseph, William Weifenbach, and Zack, and in memory of Murray Baumel, Harry I. Wohlberg, and Max Wohlberg

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1.

Chapter 2.

Chapter 3. Chapter 4.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 6.

Notes Index

Contents

Intraestedness and Meanings of Life Excursus to Objectivity and Postmodernism Suicide and Meanings of Life Uncertainty, Religion, and Meanings of Life Wholeness: Primordial and Vicarial Epilogue

vii

ix 1

5

27 47

75

107 131

139 159

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Professor Glenn Dean, John Fairley, Peter Golden, W. Scott Hicks, Rabbi Louis Jacobs, Rabbi Howard Joseph, Donna M. Main, Mari O’Donnell, Kenneth S. O’Neil M.D., Murray Perahia, Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, Professor Irving Rappaport, Professor Melvin I. Urofsky, and Professor Bonnie Veysey for reading the manuscript in whole or in part and for their valuable comments. I alone am respon- sible for its flaws. I am especially grateful to Professors Jeffrey Berman and William Weifenbach for their regular, thorough, and insightful criticism (of the manuscript) and for our deep friendship. Jeffrey’s help, in particu- lar, went beyond the call of friendship. The book is also dedicated to two other dear friends, to my grand- son, and to the memory of my distinguished uncles. I am most grateful to my wife, Kathleen, for her steadfast love, and for the love of Esther, Mari, and my grandson, Zachary Schwartz. I am thankful to Kristin Mahar for her secretarial help and to Marilyn A. Penney for preparing the manuscript according to the publisher’s specifications.

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