UC Irvine

The present study concerns the general topic of life’s meaning or the meaning of life. There are three facets which I examine under this broad heading: meaning in life, meaningfulness/a meaningful life, and the meaning of life (understood in a more expansive cosmic sense). Regarding meaning in life, I mostly take a close look at what meaning in life amounts to as a concept, and I try to provide some specific content to the notion. Concerning a meaningful life, I see this as an individual human life with much meaning in it. Most of the space dedicated to this idea is spent considering standards for evaluating and formulating approaches to meaningfulness. In these sections, I also posit my own theory, the valuative account, for living a meaningful life. Lastly, I address the often-ignored idea of the meaning of life. My claim is that the question, “What is the meaning of life?” is sensible, and there is a clear way of understanding inquiry into the meaning of all of life.