ONE ENCHANTED BEING: NEUROEXISTENTIALISM AND MEANING

Owen Flanagan; Owen Flanagan

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.00984.x

Research Articles
ONE ENCHANTED BEING: NEUROEXISTENTIALISM AND MEANING

Abstract

The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World is my attempt to explain whether and how existential meaning is possible in a material world, and how such meaning is best conceived naturalistically. Neuroexistentialism conceives of our predicament in accordance with Darwin plus neuroscience. The prospects for our kind of being‐in‐the‐world are limited by our natures as smart but fully embodied short‐lived animals. Many find this picture disenchanting, even depressing. I respond to four criticisms of my relentless upbeat naturalism: that naturalism can make no room for norms, for values; that I overvalue truth at the expense of happiness; that I underestimate the extent to which supernaturalism has made peace with naturalism; and that I can give no account for why humans as finite animals should want to overcome our given natures and seek impersonal, self‐transcendent value.

Keywords

eudaimonics, eudaimonia, supernaturalism, naturalism, neuroexistentialism

How to Cite

Flanagan, O., (2009) “ONE ENCHANTED BEING: NEUROEXISTENTIALISM AND MEANING”, Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 44(1), 41–49. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.00984.x

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References

Flanagan, Owen. 1991. Varieties of Moral Personality: Ethics and Psychological Realism. Cambridge : Harvard Univ. Press.

Flanagan, Owen. 2006. “Varieties of Naturalism. Oxford Handbook of Religion and Philosophy, ed. P.Clayton and Z.Simpson, 430–51. Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press.

Flanagan, Owen. 2007. The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World. Cambridge : MIT Press.

Griffiths, Paul J.2008. “Material Guy. Commonweal CXXXV:7 (April 11).

Haught, John F.2006. Is Nature Enough? Meaning and Truth in the Age of Science. Cambridge : Cambridge Univ. Press.

Peterson, Gregory R.2009. “A Hard Problem Indeed.Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 44:19–29.

Taves, Ann. 2009. “Bridging Science and Religion: ‘The More’ and ‘the Less’ in William James and Owen Flanagan.Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 44:9–17.

Wiebe, Donald. 2009. “A Scientific Account of Meaning: Deflationary but Not Disenchanting.Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 44:31–40.

Authors

Owen Flanagan (Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science)

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Issue

Volume 44 • Issue 1 • March 2009

Publication details

Pages	41–49

Dates

Published	2009-03-01

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9744.2009.00984.x

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