PHIL 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Christian Anarchism, Transcendentalism, Midlife Crisis
30 Apr 2016
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Leo (lev nikolayevich) tolstoy (1828-1910) was a russian novelist whose most famous works, war and peace (1869) and anna karenina (1877), are recognized as among the greatest novels of all time. Recall the general, troubling argument we"ve called the nihilist"s worry: the nihilist"s. Premise 1: if there is a meaning of life then there must be either a transcendent meaning of life or an immanent meaning of life. Premise 2: there is no transcendent meaning of life. Premise 3: there is no immanent meaning of life. Conclusion: therefore, there is no meaning of life. If there is a meaning of life, then there is nothing about life that makes it worth living. Tolstoy describes his mid-life crisis as one in which he gradually, subtly, and disturbingly became more and more convinced of something like the conclusion of the nihilist"s worry.
