Meaning in Life and Why It Matters

A short book based on Wolf's Tanner Lectures at Princeton, published with comments by John Koethe, Robert M. Adams, Nomy Arpaly and Jonathan Haidt and a reply by Wolf. The first lecture argues that meaningfulness is a distinct value in a life, separate from happiness and from morality. Wolf rejects views on which meaning is purely subjective, a matter of feeling fulfilled, and views on which it is purely objective, a matter of contributing to something larger. Her "fitting fulfilment" view joins the two: meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness, when a person loves something worth loving and engages with it actively. A life spent on a pointless task, such as Sisyphus rolling his stone, lacks meaning however content the person is. The second lecture argues that the category matters because it explains reasons we act on that fit neither egoism nor impartial duty, such as care for friends, projects and passions.

It gives the most widely discussed modern answer to what makes a life meaningful, in under two hundred clear pages, with lively replies from critics.