Showing papers on "Meaning of life published in 2008"

Spirituality and mental health

Abstract: Byline: Abraham. Verghese Introduction All along, the majority position of Psychiatry has been that Psychiatry has nothing to do with religion and spirituality. Religious beliefs and practices have long been thought to have a pathological basis, and psychiatrists over a century have understood them in this light. Religion was considered as a symptom of mental illness. Jean Charcot and Sigmund Freud linked religion with neurosis. DSM3 portrayed religion negatively by suggesting that religious and spiritual experiences are examples of psychopathology. But recent research reports strongly suggest that to many patients, religion and spirituality are resources that help them to cope with the stresses in life, including those of their illness. Many psychiatrists now believe that religion and spirituality are important in the life of their patients. The importance of spirituality in mental health is now widely accepted. As John Turbott[sup] [1] puts it, rapprochement between religion and psychiatry is essential for psychiatric practice to be effective. The Royal College of Psychiatrists, London, has a special group on Psychiatry and Spirituality. The American College of Graduate Medical Education mandates in its special requirements for residency training in Psychiatry, that all programs must provide training in religious and spiritual factors that can influence mental health. The World Psychiatric Association recently established a section on psychiatry and religion. Lukoff et al .[sup] [2] proposed that the diagnostic entities of religious and psychospiritual problems should be incorporated in DSM4 which has been accepted. DSM4, V 62.89 includes three categories-normal religious and spiritual experiences; religious and spiritual problems leading to mental disturbances; and mental disturbances with a religious and spiritual context. I understand that the Indian Psychiatric Society has formed a task force on spirituality and mental health which is urging the Medical council of India to include taking the spiritual history as part of psychiatric evaluation. Even so the importance of religion and spirituality are not sufficiently recognized by the psychiatric community. Religion does not have a place in most of the psychiatry text books. Only very few psychiatrists make use of religion and spirituality in the therapeutic situation. This paper makes an attempt to bring out the importance of spirituality in mental health. What is Spirituality? Spirituality is a globally acknowledged concept. It involves belief and obedience to an all powerful force usually called God, who controls the universe and the destiny of man. It involves the ways in which people fulfill what they hold to be the purpose of their lives, a search for the meaning of life and a sense of connectedness to the universe. The universality of spirituality extends across creed and culture. At the same time, spirituality is very much personal and unique to each person. It is a sacred realm of human experience. Spirituality produces in man qualities such as love, honesty, patience, tolerance, compassion, a sense of detachment, faith, and hope. Of late, there are some reports which suggest that some areas of the brain, mainly the nondominant one, are involved in the appreciation and fulfillment of spiritual values and experiences.[sup] [3],[4],[5] Spirituality and Religion Religion is institutionized spirituality. Thus, there are several religions having different sets of beliefs, traditions, and doctrines. They have different types of community-based worship programs. Spirituality is the common factor in all these religions. It is possible that religions can lose their spirituality when they become institutions of oppression instead of agents of goodwill, peace and harmony. They can become divisive instead of unifying. History will tell us that this had happened from time to time. It has been said that more blood has been shed in the cause of religion than any other cause. …

Being All of Me: Black Students Negotiating Multiple Identities

Abstract: Introduction At the turn of the last century, W. E. B. DuBois wrote, "The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,--this longing to attain self-conscious [personhood], to merge his double self into a better and truer self.... In this merging, he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost.... He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American" (1903/1994, pp. 2-3). The college journey mirrors this same strife for many students. Howard Bowen (1968) commented that one of the goals of college should be the development of individuals. Relatedly, Alexander Astin (1993) pointed out that students enter college with a commitment and expectation that they will develop "a meaningful philosophy of life," which includes reflection on the meaning of life, the construction of a meaningful existence, and existential ponderings about the self and identity. Inasmuch as this is a stated outcome, as reflected in DuBois's comments above, the path toward it is often fraught with the tensions and pulls of identity struggles (Chickering & Reisser, 1993). For students from underrepresented populations, those identity struggles take on a particular intensity when the "longing to attain self-conscious [personhood]" means negotiating the multiple dimensions of their identities in an environmental context that may be neither inclusive nor welcoming (McEwen, Roper, Bryant, & Langa, 1990; Sedlacek, 1987). For these students, neither the old self formed prior to entering college nor the self who is becoming during their college experience should be discarded. Yet merging the two into a "better and truer self" (DuBois 1903/1994, p. 2) to be both who they were and who they are becoming is a difficult process. As Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson have observed, "The axes of the subject's [i.e., individual's] identifications and experiences are multiple, because locations in gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality complicate one another, and not merely additively.... Nor do different vectors of identification and experiences overlap neatly and entirely" (1992, p. xiv). As Smith and Watson noted, identity integration is a level of cross-cultural, psychosocial development that reflects an understanding of the self as inherently composed of multiple facets, which come together and influence each other in transformative ways. Living and articulating identity as an integration of these multiple facets instead of as merely additive facets entails moving self-definitions as raced, gendered, and educated from externally imposed limitations to internalized, interlocking components through which self-actualization, or what DuBois termed self-conscious personhood, may be more fully realized (Myers et al., 1991). This symbiotic relationship means that each different social or cultural identity facet is identifiable and salient in all areas of the individual's life. Developing toward identity integration may be a way to transcend the societal tendency to compartmentalize everything including the self (Palmer, 1983), to smooth out the supposed contradictions between these multiple facets of self, and to provide a sense of coherence about who one is and how one lives in social context (Luttrell, 1996). The development of multiple aspects of identity in an environment that may be hostile to certain resolutions of one or all of these sociocultural identities presents psychosocial identity challenges for Black students, particularly for those in predominantly White educational contexts (Brown-Collins & Sussewell, 1986; Feagin, Vera, & Imani, 1996; Fleming, 1984; McEwen et al., 1990). This article reports findings from a study that investigated the awareness and integration of multiple sociocultural identities among junior and senior Black students on a predominantly White campus in 2001. Five research questions guided this study: What are the self-perceptions of multiple sociocultural identities by Black students at a predominantly White college? …

The meaning of life : a very short introduction

Abstract: Preface 1. Questions and Answers 2. The Problem of Meaning 3. The Eclipse of Meaning 4. Is Life What You Make It? Further reading

Invitation to Existential Psychology: A Psychology for the Unique Human Being and its Applications in Therapy

Abstract: Contents About the author Preface Chapter 1: What is existential psychology? Chapter 2: Happiness and suffering Chapter 3: Love and aloneness Chapter 4: Adversity and success: The role of crisis for human development Chapter 5: Death anxiety and life commitment Chapter 6: Free choice and the obligations of your life reality Chapter 7: To find the meaning of life in a chaotic world Appendix A: Existential writers and their major works Appendix B: Existential therapy and counselling Bibliography Index

The Meaning of Life: A Reader

Abstract: *=NEW TO THIS EDITION INTRODUCTION. THE QUESTION OF THE MEANING OF LIFE PART ONE. THE THEISTIC ANSWER PART TWO. THE NONTHEISTIC ALTERNATIVE PART THREE. QUESTIONING THE QUESTION

O sentido de vida do familiar do paciente crítico

Abstract: This study emerged from the reflection of my nursing professional experiences. The objectives were to understand the life meaning of critical patients' relatives, in view of the Tragic Triad: guilt, suffering, and death; to identify the contents of these individuals' life meanings, based on Existential Analysis. The methodological trajectory implied the qualitative approach and content analysis. The understanding of the meanings was guided by the Triadic Configuration, from which the following categories emerged: existential emptiness, suffering, guilt, death, meaning of life and ICU care. For the critical patients' relatives, finding the meaning of life in view of the Tragic Triad means perceiving the tragic optimism, such as the possibility of answering life questions in a positive and responsible way, by means of spiritual forces, as of their inner God, though the purpose of creating or performing something, or through the love dedicated to their sick loved one.

Meaningfulness and Identities

Abstract: Three distinct but related questions can be asked about the meaningfulness of one’s life. The first is ‘What is the meaning of life?,’ which can be called ‘the cosmic question about meaningfulness’; the second is ‘What is a meaningful life?,’ which can be called ‘the general question about meaningfulness’; and the third is ‘What is the meaning of my life?,’ which can be called ‘the personal question about meaningfulness.’ I argue that in order to deal with all three questions we should start with the personal question. There is a way of understanding the personal question which allows us to answer it independently of any consideration of the cosmic question, but which nonetheless helps us see why the cosmic question should be dismissed as a bad question. Besides, a recommendable answer to the general question can be derived from my understanding of how the personal question should be answered. Two notions are essential to my account, namely, the notion of identities and the notion of a biographical life. And the account can be epitomized in this enticing way: a person’s life is meaningful if it contains material for an autobiography that she thinks is worth writing and others think is worth reading.

Meaning in Psychologists' Personal and Professional Lives

Abstract: In this study, the authors examine psychologists' beliefs about meaning in their own lives. Psychologists completed the Personal Meaning Profile and Meaning in Life Questionnaire to assess their beliefs about the cosmic and terrestrial meaning of life. Psychologists also completed an existential career exercise to assess those aspects of their professional lives they found most meaningful. Overall, psychologists rejected the notion that there is no cosmic meaning to life and instead generally supported the belief that the meaning of life is to love, help, or show compassion for others. Psychologists also rejected statements indicating that nothing was personally meaningful to them and generally reported that intimate relationships, family, and friendships brought the most personal meaning to their lives. Finally, as a group, psychologists indicated that helping others live more satisfying lives was the most important aspect of their professional work.

Assumptions About Human Nature and the Impact of Philosophical Concepts on Professional Issues: A Questionnaire-Based Study with 800 Students from Psychology, Philosophy, and Science

Abstract: Philosophical anthropology is concerned with assumptions about human nature, differential psychology with the empirical investigation of such belief systems. A questionnaire composed of 64 questions concerning brain and consciousness, free will, evolution, meaning of life, belief in God, and theodicy problem was used to gather data from 563 students of psychology at seven universities and from 233 students enrolled in philosophy or the natural sciences. Essential concepts were monism–dualism–complementarity, atheism–agnosticism–deism–theism, attitude toward transcendence–immanence, and self-ratings of religiosity and interest in meaning of life. The response profiles ( Menschenbild ) of women and men, and of psychology students in the first and midterm of study were very similar. The method of statistical twins indicated a number of differences between students of psychology, philosophy, and the natural sciences. The majority of respondents were convinced that philosophical preconceptions on mind–body and free will have important practical implications for the way in which psychotherapists, physicians, or and judges exercise their professions.

House and Philosophy: Everybody Lies

Abstract: Acknowledgments. "Read Less, More TV: A Cranky, Slightly Rude Introduction". I. "HUMANITY IS OVERRATED." HOUSE ON LIFE. 1. Selfish, Base Animals Crawling Across the Earth: House and the Meaning of Life (Henry Jacoby). 2. House and Sartre: "Hell is Other People" (Jennifer L. McMahon). 3. Is There a Superman in the House? A Nietzchean Point of View (David Goldblatt). 4. House and Moral Luck (Jane Dryden). II. "WELCOME TO THE END OF THE THOUGHT PROCESS." HOUSE'S LOGIC AND METHOD. 5. The Logic of Guesswork in Sherlock Holmes and House, M.D. (Jerold J. Abrams). 6. It Explains Everything (Barbara Anne Stock)! 7. The Sound of One House Clapping: Rude Diagnostician as Zen Rhetorician (Jeffrey C. Ruff and Jeremy Barris). 8. "Being nice is overrated": House and Socrates on the Necessity of Conflict (Melanie Frappier). 9. Is There a Daoist in the House (Peter Vernezze)? III. "IT IS THE NATURE OF MEDICINE THAT YOU ARE GOING TO SCREW UP." HOUSE AND ETHICAL PRINCIPLES. 10. "You care for everybody": Cameron's Ethics of Care (Renee Kyle). 11. To Intubate or not to Intubate: House's Principles and Priorities (Barbara Anne Stock and Teresa Blankmeyer Burke). 12. House, M.D., and Medical Paternalism: "You can't always get what you want." (Mark R. Wicclair). 13. If the End Doesn't Justify the Means, Then What Does (Catherine Sartin)? 14. House vs. Tritter: On the Clash of Theoretical and Practical Authority (Kenneth Ehrenberg). IV. "THE DRUGS DON'T MAKE ME HIGH, THEY MAKE ME NEUTRAL." VIRTUES AND CHARACTER ON HOUSE. 15. House and the Virtue of Eccentricity (John R. Fitzpatrick). 16. Love: The Only Risk House Can't Take (Sara Protasi). 17. A Prescription for Friendship (Sara Waller). 18. Diagnosing Character: A House Divided (Heather Battaly and Amy Coplan)? Contributors: Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital Staff. Index.

Evolution and the Big Questions : Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters

Abstract: Acknowledgments. Introduction. 1. Evolution and Knowledge. 2. Evolution and Consciousness. 3. Evolution and Language. 4. Evolution and Sex. 5. Evolution and Feminism. 6. Evolution and Race. 7. Evolution and Ethics. 8. Evolution and Religion. 9. Evolution and the Meaning of Life. Appendix: Common Misconceptions About Evolution. Glossary. References. Index.

”I don’t believe the meaning of life is all that profound” : A study of Icelandic teenagers’ life interpretation and values

Abstract: What do teenagers recount about themselves and their interpretation of life and values, and what characterises individual teenagers’ perceptions and statements? What is the relation between teenage ...

The Meaning of 'Life': Belief and Reason in the Abortion Debate

Abstract: This Article criticizes how both sides in the abortion debate have treated the concepts of "human life" and personhood. Much legal scholarship has focused on whether abortion should be permitted, but little attention has been cast on the role of rhetoric in the debate. The Article argues that appeals to "human life" are vague and deceptive, since most conservatives would not consistently treat a fetus as a legal person. Conservatives can commit only to a "thin" conception of life (an embryo or fetus is a human organism in the process of developing into a person) even as they trade on the more emotionally compelling "thick" notions that the term "life" invokes. In response, liberals often simply assume that "life" means "personhood" and then assert that abortion must be permitted even if the fetus is a person. Alternatively, liberals sidestep the question of fetal personhood, arguing that principles of individual autonomy do not permit any single view to be imposed upon everyone. The Article criticizes both of these responses. The first does not hold up under scrutiny, and the second is disingenuous, for if any abortions remain legal, society has not sidestepped the question but rather has rejected fetal personhood. Moreover, the standard liberal responses neglect the important role women's autonomy and dignity should play in the debate. This Article argues that liberals and conservatives must address directly the question of fetal personhood, and that, in doing so, they must seek reflective equilibrium and satisfy the requirements of public reason. Reflective equilibrium and public reason would likely lead conservative and liberal views of abortion to converge on a gradualist view of embryonic and fetal life (an embryo is intrinsically valuable but its moral weight increases with gestation). The distracting and misleading question of embryonic or fetal personhood could then be laid aside in favor of a more honest, fruitful public conversation about the morality of abortion.

Global Trends in Religion and the Reaffirmation of Hindu Identity in Bali

Abstract: Religion - broadly definable as the human endeavour to understand and pursue the innermost purpose of life in an ever-changing social and material world - has been integral to the lives of individuals and the constitution of human societies throughout the ages and continues to be so. As the world we live in changes, however, our experience of life changes with it. New forms of experience thus create demand for commensurate changes in religious concepts and practices. Conversely, our collective belief systems actively shape the reality we experience, now and in the future. Max Weber took the pulse of this process when, in the early 20th century, he charted the commensurate features of modern life and modern religion in his classic essay, The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1958 [1904]). In it he described the attunement between the spiritual and material conditions characteristic of modernity. The shift from traditional society to modernity saw a large proportion of humanity uprooted from its agriculturalist or pastoralist way of life and transported into an alienating experience of life as urbanised wage-earners in an industrialised capitalist society. The world and its political economy, however, have changed again since. There is an urgent need to study anew the accommodation occurring between society and religion in response to a post-modern or late-modern societal shift that has occurred in the post-Second World War period and is ongoing. Not everyone will agree that the post-modern shift is quite so profound. I argue, however, that it is just as important because this latest transition has been so much faster than the process of modernisation. My aim here is to explore three characteristic forms of post-modern religiosity that have emerged as broad international trends from the 1960s onwards. I ask in what way they are commensurate with our contemporary life experience in a world marked by interdependence on an unprecedented, global scale. The main focus will be on the worldwide proliferation of social movements for the revitalisation of local religions, which I will illustrate with an ethnographic case study on the revitalisation of identity among Balinese Hindus in the aftermath of the 2002 bomb attack there by Muslim extremists. Before I present this case material, however, I will describe the trend toward local religious revitalisation in more general terms, together with two other major trends that can be observed in post-modern religion: 'New Age' or eco-spirituality, and fundamentalism.

Ecclesiastes, Fleeting and Timeless: Part II

Abstract: The reading of hevel as "vanity" is not only misleading, but in some cases it makes the text impossible to read. Perhaps the most striking example can be found in the book's ninth chapter, where Kohelet discusses the value of love in one's life. View life with a woman you have come to love--all the days of your transitory life [kol yemei hayei hevlecha] which he has gifted you under the sun--every fleeting day. For this is your share in life ... (9:9). Read the traditional way, the verse is difficult to parse. It would sound something like, Live joyfully ... all the days of your vain life. Life is vanity, so enjoy love? The verse makes far better sense if hevel is translated as "fleeting," focusing on life's brevity: Cherish your time together, for life is fleeting, and therefore precious. Then is your love that much more meaningful. Understanding hevel in this sense is also crucial to understanding the passage, in the book's eighth chapter, which deals with the concept of injustice in the world. Read the traditional way, Kohelet explains, Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. This, he concludes, is vanity (8:10). Again, this is a difficult read: Why is it considered vanity if evildoers are forgotten? The verse makes far more sense if we understand it to relate to the illusory, temporary nature of evil's success: Kohelet reassures us that setbacks to justice are transient, and that evil will not prevail in the final round: It is of the fleeting nature of the world, that some righteous receive what befits the acts of evildoers, while some evildoers receive what befits the righteous; this too, I say, is only temporary (8:14). It is only through the corrected reading of hevel as "transience" rather than "vanity" that we may understand the structure of the book of Ecclesiastes, and thereby learn its message. For Ecclesiastes does not offer a single, static teaching from beginning to end, but a thematic progression, one that follows Kohelet's own discovery of meaning. The book can be seen as consisting of three parts. The initial stage, covering the first five chapters of the book (starting at 1:12), is characterized by frustration with the transience of life: Kohelet bemoans the fact that all achievements are short-lived. He is bitter about the transience of human contentment (2:1-3), riches (2:4-11), physical existence (3:18-21), and corrective social remedies (Chapter 4). Stylistically, this stage is characterized by the juxtapositions of the term hevel with words of despair and tragedy. Though not all references to transience, even at this early stage, are decidedly negative, most are. It is in this first part that we learn why Kohelet "hated life," for he has discovered that all one's worldly achievements are, like man himself, in the end but dust and ashes: For what has a man for all his work, and for his mind's notions, which he works at under the sun? (2:22). It is this bitter discovery of mortality that propels Kohelet on his quest for meaning. We are reminded of Franz Rosenzweig's words that "All cognition of the All originates in death, in the fear of death." (1) Or of the story of the young Siddhartha, the first Buddha, who lived in India just a few centuries after Solomon. His privileged upbringing, comparable to Solomon's own, shielded him from the reality of the outside world; Siddhartha embarked on his spectacular spiritual journey "to find the real meaning of life and death" (2) only after his first confrontation with age, illness, and mortality. Kohelet's quest, as well, is triggered by the traumatic realization of human transience--that the greatest efforts of the wisest king cannot stop the flow of time, nor can they eliminate suffering and injustice from the world. Dejection soon gives way to acceptance, however, as the book enters its second stage, starting at 6:4 and running through Chapter 7, in which Kohelet begins to view the ephemeral nature of reality more philosophically. …

The Meaning of Life: Subjectivism, Objectivism, and Divine Support

Abstract: Few can write as expertly and eloquently on such a wide range of philosophical areas as John Cottingham. Very few are as disposed as he to try to look at matters from others’ points of view. And he is spectacularly good at foreseeing how others will react to various ideas and arguments. This combination of talents and virtues makes him one of the very best people with whom to discuss philosophy … and life. It is thus a privilege for me to carry on the discussion with him by contributing a paper to a volume in his honour.

Disturbance, Coping, and Innovation: A Phenomenology of Terror

Abstract: Is there an escape from terror? Beyond loss of life, terrorism aims to undermine the meaning of life. Policy responses are based on flight, paralysis, or fight-responses ranging from war to containment .What, however, if even normal life already "contains" terror? If so, how we deal with the small disturbances in everyday coping may tell us something about what it takes to build a world beyond terror. For this purpose we pay special attention to the concepts of coping, theorizing, and contemplation used by Martin Heidegger and Hubert Dreyfus to describe recovery from breaches of everyday life and work.

Nostalgia: from cowbells to the meaning of life

Abstract: Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain). The literal meaning of nostalgia, then, is the suffering evoked by the desire to return to one’s place of origin. The term was coined by the Swiss physician Johannes Hofer (1688/1934) to capture the adverse symptoms displayed by Swiss mercenaries in the service of European monarchs. Hofer thought of nostalgia as ‘a cerebral disease’ and believed that is was caused by ‘the quite continuous vibration of animal spirits through those fibers of the middle brain in which impressed traces of ideas of the Fatherland still cling’ (p.384). Symptoms of this disease, Hofer proposed, included obsessive thinking of home, bouts of weeping, anxiety, palpitations, anorexia and insomnia. Not everyone agreed with Hofer. The physician J.J. Scheuchzer (cited in Davis, 1979), for instance, proposed that the supposedly high incidence of nostalgia among Swiss mercenaries was due to the variations in atmospheric pressure these soldiers experienced as they descended from their Alpine homes to fight on the plains of Europe. Interestingly, some military physicians proposed that nostalgia was largely confined to the Swiss because of the unremitting clanging of cowbells in the Alps, which inflicted damage upon the eardrum and brain. This view of nostalgia as a neurological affliction persisted throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. By the early 19th century, definitions of nostalgia changed. Nostalgia came to be regarded as a form of melancholia or depression. This disconsolate view of nostalgia was promoted throughout the 20th century by scholars in the psychodynamic tradition, who described nostalgia as an ‘immigrant psychosis’ (Frost, 1938), a ‘mentally repressive compulsive disorder’ (Fodor, 1950), and ‘a regressive manifestation closely related to the issue of loss, grief, incomplete mourning, and, finally, depression’ (Castelnuovo-Tedesco, 1980). In part, this gloomy perspective can be attributed to the fact that nostalgia has long been equated with homesickness. Only in the latter part of the 20th century did nostalgia acquire a unique conceptual status. The groundwork for this new look on nostalgia was laid by sociologist Fred Davis (1979). He showed, for instance, that participants associated words like warm, old times, childhood, and yearning more frequently with nostalgia than with homesickness, suggesting that participants could discriminate between these two concepts. Current dictionary definitions of homesickness and nostalgia also reflect their distinctness. The New Oxford Dictionary of English defines homesick as

Basketball and Philosophy: Thinking Outside the Paint

Abstract: What can the film "Hoosiers" teach us about the meaning of life? How can ancient Eastern wisdom traditions, such as Taoism and Zen Buddhism, improve our jump-shots? What can the "Zen Master" (Phil Jackson) and the "Big Aristotle" (Shaquille O'Neal) teach us about sustained excellence and success? Is women's basketball "better" basketball? How, ethically, should one deal with a strategic cheater in pickup basketball? With NBA and NCAA team rosters constantly changing, what does it mean to play for the "same team"? What can coaching legends Dean Smith, Rick Pitino, Pat Summitt, and Mike Krzyzewski teach us about character, achievement, and competition? What makes basketball such a beautiful game to watch and play? In "Basketball and Philosophy", a Dream Team of twenty-six academics trained in philosophy - also diehard hoops fans - proves that basketball is the thinking fan's sport. Whether you play basketball, coach it, or just love to watch it, this book will forever enrich your understanding and appreciation of the game.

Mundo e Sentido na Obra de Viktor Frankl

Abstract: The present paper aimed to research a central point on the Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s work: what is meant by the expression “meaning of life”. We believe that the mentioned issue constitutes the cornerstone of Logotherapy world view. It’s also our point showing how decisive that category is for a proper understanding of the author’s thought. Our logic path led us to a discussion over the objective quality of meaning and its relation to the origins of values. At last, we stand for the existence of a world founded by meaning in Logotherapy theory. Keywords : Viktor Frankl; logotherapy; meaning of life.

The moral life : essays in honour of John Cottingham

Abstract: Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction N.Athanassoulis & S.Vice PART 1: PARTIALITY, SPIRITUALITY AND CHARACTER The Significance of the Self: Partiality and Spirituality S.Vice Contempt and Integrity M.de Gaynesford Self-Love, Love of Neighbour, and Impartiality D.S.Oderberg PART 2: THE EMOTIONS AND THE GOOD LIFE Akrasia and the Emotions N.Athanassoulis The Inner Life of the 'Dear Self' S.Morgan What Reason Can't Do M.Lacewing PART 3: THE MEANING OF LIFE Meaning, Morality, and Religion R.Crisp The Meaning of Life: Subjectivism, Objectivism, and Divine Support B.Hooker God, Morality and the Meaning of Life T.Metz The Self, the Good Life and the Transcendent J.Cottingham Index

The life meaning of the parents of the critical patient

Abstract: This study emerged from the reflection of my nursing professional experiences. The objectives were to understand the life meaning of critical patients' relatives, in view of the Tragic Triad: guilt, suffering, and death; to identify the contents of these individuals' life meanings, based on Existential Analysis. The methodological trajectory implied the qualitative approach and content analysis. The understanding of the meanings was guide d b y the Triadic Configuration, from which the following categories emerged: existential emptiness, suffering, guilt, death, meaning of life and ICU care. For the critical patients' relatives, finding the mean-ing of life in view of the Tragic Triad means perceiving the tragic optimism, such as the possibility of answering life questions in a positive and responsible way, by means of spiritual forces, as of their inner God, though the purpose of creating or performing something, or through the love dedicated to their sick loved one.

God, Morality and the Meaning of Life

Abstract: In recent years, John Cottingham has been the most powerful English-speaking voice defending a supernaturalist perspective on meaning in life. I take the question of what makes life meaningful to be roughly equivalent to these questions: What is worthy of our love or devotion? Which final ends do we have most reason to pursue besides achieving happiness? How can we positively connect with something higher? What is worthy of great pride or admiration?1 Supernaturalists claim that a satisfactory answer to such questions must appeal to facts about a spiritual realm. More specifically, in the Western tradition, supernaturalists maintain that having a certain relationship with God or putting one’s soul into a certain state is constitutive of, or at least necessary for, meaning in life. If neither God nor a soul exists, or if they exist but one fails to interact with them in the right way, then one’s life is utterly meaningless. Cottingham is one of the few analytic philosophers lately who has defended this perspective with care and rigour.2

The New Testament in Cross-Cultural Perspective/matrix: The Bible in Mediterranean Context/the Shape of the Gospel, New Testament Essays/constantine's Bible, Politics, and the Making of the New Testaments

Abstract: THE NEW TESTAMENT IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE. Richard L. Rohrbaugh, in MATRIX: THE BIBLE IN MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT, 2007. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, Wipf & Stock Publishers. Pb. 211 + xvi, pb. $28.00. THE SHAPE OF THE GOSPEL, NEW TESTAMENT ESSAYS. Robert C. Tannehill, 2007. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, Wipf & Stock Publishers. Pb. 237 + xvi, pb. $28.00. CONSTANTINE'S BIBLE, POLITICS, AND THE MAKING OF THE NEW TESTAMENTS. David L. Dungan. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress. Pp. 224 + xii, pb, $17.00. Reviewed by J. Harold Ellens. Rohrbaugh is emeritus professor of Christian Studies at Lewis and Clark and has published Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels and Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of John, and edited The Social Sciences and New Testament Interpretation. Kloppenberg says this current book is important for its sensitivity to the social dynamics of the world of Jesus day, allowing for a reading of familiar stories with a broad new set of convicting insights. The author repeatedly exposes the ethnocentric nature of many modern interpretations, and illustrates how a knowledge of Mediterranean anthropology cats an entirely different light on the significance of the parables and sayings of Jesus, for example, clearly setting forth a new way to read the scriptures. The Bible is not a Western book, and the world of the New Testament is not our world. The New Testament world was pre-industrial, Middle Eastern, and populated mostly by non-literate peasants who depended on hearing these writings read aloud. Only a few of the literate elite were part of the Jesus movement, and they knew nothing of either modernity or the Western culture we inhabit today. This means that for all North Americans and North Europeans reading the New Testament must always be an exercise in cross-cultural communication. Travelers, diplomats, and exchange students take great pains to bridge the cultural gaps that cloud mutual understanding; but the typical Bible reader habitually suspends cross-cultural awareness when encountering the narratives of the sacred text. The result must invariably be that we unwittingly project our own cultural understandings onto the pages of the New Testament. Rohrbaugh has undertaken to help us in this complex problem. His eleven chapters address such issues as interpretation of scripture in cross-cultural readings; ferreting out the obstacles to proper understanding of the Bible; putting ourselves into the shoes of a village craftsman in the 1st century setting like Jesus is purported to have been; deciphering the symbolism in the meaning of life in rural Galilee in that century; discerning Jesus' selfconsciousness and self-concept; noting the social problems of a child and his family dealing with a dishonorable birth in which the real father of the child was in question; hearing the gossip in Jesus' world and community; perceiving the ways in which the Synoptic Gospels and John attempt to repair this "damage"; and the like. This is a particularly readable and articulate volume with a fine epilogue about writing cultural history, and a substantial scholarly bibliography, but, disgracefully, no index. What are publishers thinking who omit bibliographies or indexes these days. That is disrespectful to the scholars, lay readers and students, alike. From the same company and in a similar vein, Tannehill's compact volume on the nature of the gospel has neither bibliography nor indexes. However, its content is worth the price of the volume. Three parts address the sayings and stories in the Synoptics, a deeper investigation of the Gospel of Mark, and Paul's writings on the good news, respectively. Tannehill is emeritus professor of NT at Methodist Theological School of Ohio. …

Quality of working life research: I. Quality of life, happiness and meaning of life

Abstract: Good work is an activity that creates a strong sens e of personal meaningfulness because it is directly connected to the project of our personal development, what we want f rom life. We all want to become complete. To this e nd, we have to grow and achieve fulfillment. Good work challenges us to go beyond our limits and confront new and exciting asp ects of life. Work should be a direct manifestation of life. Life is a simple an d clear expression of what you do. Our love of life is revealed in what we do. The fine art of working and the secret of working are t o be found in the intimacy of the intersection betw een our lives and the world around us. The secret of the extraordinary working life is the blossoming of all our human talents. Mo st interestingly, it seems that we all have great gifts to give to the world, but o nly after many years of dedicated practice will the se gifts reveal themselves fully.

Self, Sin, and the Sacred: Some Elements of a Select Psychology for the Care of Souls

Abstract: Many pastors feel that their work in the secular sphere can best be described as an exploration of the meaning of life: as spiritual care. However, the idea that it is possible and easy to find such a thing as “the meaning of life,” as well as the concurrent idea that this meaning will help to make life more agreeable, should not be taken for granted but, rather, should be considered to be open for further exploration. To get a better understanding of the difference between spiritual care and the care of souls, I will discuss three central themes in any pastoral practice: sin, sense, and sorrow, together with three related constructs: soul, self, and the sacred. My exposition will result in a plea for revaluing two traditional but ever relevant modes of religious leadership: the modes of shepherd and teacher, of tutor and theologian, which are performed either in the context of the church or the secular institutional environment.

From Nature to Morality in Emerson and Yi Hwang's Literature

Abstract: This paper examines Yi Hwang’s and Emerson’s ideas of nature and morality in their poems and essays, points of intersection in their respective ideas and their similar attitudes towards nature, how they combined nature with human morality, the basis of their reasoning, and finally, the social implications of their thought. Emerson, in the newly rising America of the 19th century, claimed that every individual could become a subject of universal morality by realizing the holistic harmony of nature in himself. This was to become the basis of early American constitutionalism, which tended to function as an external regulator of moral behavior. Yi Hwang insisted that we could become moral subjects by internalizing the fundamental harmony of nature, as he was critical of the corruption of the 16th century Joseon government officials. Both scholars believed that the harmony and order found in nature was the root of human society; and that we could take part in the harmony and order as members of the universe. Both of these authors have insight about how the individual gains his own reason for being, how he endows himself with the meaning of life. It is the only way to comprehend the meaning of life in a world that appears meaningless.

Seeking the Meaning of Life: A Comparison of Lao Tzu's "Tao" and Emerson's "Oversoul"

Abstract: This paper aims to compare the similarities and differences between Lao Tzu’s “Tao” and Emerson’s “Oversoul” in terms of their respective connotations, implications for the relationship between man and nature, and the specific means of conformity. It is argued by the current author that although both concepts serve as the highest ontological rule, laying an epistemological foundation for human existence, Lao Tzu’s “Tao” and Emerson’s “Oversoul” differ from each other in the sense that the “Tao” is illusive in nature while the “Oversoul” is perceptible through the experiential nature. In addition, Lao Tzu’s materialistic view of the “Tao” implies a holistic relationship between man and nature, while Emerson’s “Oversoul” is characterized by religious monism, identifying man with God. Lastly, in comparison to Lao Tzu’s advocation of “actionless activity” as a means to follow the “Tao,” Emerson urged people to become active reformers for self-perfection and spiritual independence with the power of the “Oversoul” realized from within. Although from different perspectives, when put into the framework of specific historical and cultural backgrounds, both approaches constitute a similar attempt by the two great thinkers to seek a way out of the social reality for a more meaningful life.