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Leading Lives: On Happiness and Narrative Meaning

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Author

Summary, in English

In contemporary moral philosophy, the standard way of understanding the constituents of the human good is in terms of a fairly limited number of features that contribute to our happiness independently of how they are situated in our lives. Even when this approach is supplemented by Moorean ideas about organic wholes, it still cannot do justice to the deep importance of how things are situated and even when meaning is seen as an important factor, it still tends to be treated as simply another item on the list of constituents. It is argued here that we should abandon this approach in favor of one that recognizes that our lives are best understood in terms of their narrative structure and that treats narrative meaning as a pervasive phenomenon that strongly influences the importance that different features have in making our lives go more or less well.

Publishing year

2003

Language

English

Pages

62-77

Publication/Series

Philosophical Papers

Volume

32

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Topic

  • Philosophy

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0556-8641