Some philosophers have thought that life could only be meaningful if there is no God. For Sartre and Nagel, for example, a God of the traditional classical theistic sort would constrain our powers of self-creative autonomy in ways that would severely detract from the meaning of our lives, possibly even evacuate our lives of all meaning. Some philosophers, by contrast, have thought that life could only be meaningful if there is a God.
God and the Meanings of Life is interested in exploring the truth in both these schools of thought, seeking to discover what God could and couldn't do to make life meaningful (as well as what he would and wouldn't do). Mawson espouses a version of the 'amalgam' or 'pluralism' thesis about the issue of life's meaning – in essence, that there are a number of different legitimate meanings of 'meaning' (and indeed 'life') in the question of life's meaning. According to Mawson, God, were he to exist, would help make life meaningful in some of these senses and hinder in some others. He argues that whilst there could be meaning in a Godless universe, there could be other sorts of meaning in a Godly one and that these would be deeper.
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Review
“The last twenty-five years or so have witnessed a remarkable renaissance of interest among a minority of analytical philosophers in the question of the meaning of life, and this monograph provides a substantial contribution to that discussion … This is an important contribution to the current debate and my hope is that it will be widely read and receive the detailed engagement it merits.” – Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
About the Author
T. J. Mawson is Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at St Peter's College, Oxford University. He is the author of Belief in God: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (2005).
Theology
Free Will & Determinism
General
Christian Theology
Religious
Religion
Philosophy
What God Could and Couldn’t Do To Make Our Lives More Meaningful
Ethics & Moral Philosophy
FC 1
Half title 2
Also available from Bloomsbury 3
Title 4
Copyright 5
Dedication 6
Contents 8
Quote 10
Acknowledgements 11
Introduction 12
Chapter One 29
Chapter Two 55
Chapter Three 61
Chapter Four 78
Chapter Five 86
Chapter Six 96
Chapter Seven 109
Chapter Eight 121
Chapter Nine 145
Chapter Ten 170
Conclusion 183
Notes 186
Bibliography 230
Further Reading 235
Index 238

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Mawson, T. J.

Taylor & Francis Ltd

Bloomsbury UK

Methuen Drama

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

London, 2016

1, 20161020

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Memory of the World Librarian: Calamitous Annunciation

2025-10-27