Neurology, psychology, and the meaning of life: On Thagard's The Brain and the Meaning of Life

The Brain and the Meaning of Life

Paul Thagard

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010

274 pages, ISBN: 9780691142722 (hbk): $29.95

This paper criticizes central arguments in Paul Thagard's The Brain and the Meaning of Life, concluding, contrary to Thagard, that there is very little that we can learn from brain research about the meaning of life. The paper offers a critical review of Thagard's argument against nihilism and his argument that it is love, work, and play, rather than other activities, that make life meaningful. Moreover, the paper argues that the rich neurological information Thagard presents throughout the book does not contribute at all to his arguments and, more generally, that neurological research is irrelevant also to almost all other aspects of meaning of life research.