9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd vi 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM Philosophy in a Meaningless Life 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd i 8/26/2015 5:20:41 PM Also available from Bloomsbury Th e Bloomsbury Companion to Heidegger , edited by Francois Raff oul and Eric S. Nelson Nietzsche, Nihilism and the Philosophy of the Future , edited by Jeff rey Metzger Nothingness and the Meaning of Life , Nicholas Waghorn Time, Creation and the Continuum , Richard Sorabji Truth and Method , Hans-Georg Gadamer 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd ii 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM Philosophy in a Meaningless Life A System of Nihilism, Consciousness and Reality James Tartaglia Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDON • OXFORD • NEW YORK • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd iii 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2016 Paperback edition first published 2016 © James Tartaglia, 2016 James Tartaglia has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-4770-2 PB: 978-1-3500-1751-1 ePDF: 978-1-4742-4767-2 ePub: 978-1-4742-4768-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tartaglia, James, 1973– Philosophy in a meaningless life: a system of nihilism, consciousness and reality / James Tartaglia. – 1 [edition]. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4742-4770-2 (hb) 1. Life. 2. Meaning (Philosophy) 3. Meaninglessness (Philosophy) 4. Nihilism (Philosophy) 5. Consciousness. I. Title. BD431.T1495 2015 128–dc23 2015021230 Typeset by Newgen knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd iv 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM Th is book is dedicated with love to Zo Hoida 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd v 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd vi 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 The Meaninglessness of Life 21 1. The truth of nihilism 21 2. Attunements to nihilism: Anxiety and boredom 25 3. Heidegger’s rejection of nihilism 28 4. The priority of boredom 31 5. Existence and nihilism 34 6. Nietzsche’s nihilism 36 2 A Survey of Misguided Coping Strategies: Does Nihilism Ruin Your Life? 41 1. The consequences of nihilism 41 2. Absurdity 44 3. Transcendence 48 4. Humanism 53 5. Relativism 56 3 On What Philosophy Is 61 1. The persistence of philosophical questions 61 2. What is philosophy? 63 3. Enframement and ontology 69 4. Against philosophy-scepticism 74 5. Meno’s paradox 78 4 The Problem of Consciousness 83 1. Consciousness and objective thought 83 2. Indirectness and self-awareness 86 3. Consciousness as the brain: Revisionism 89 4. Consciousness as the brain: From identification to revisionism 95 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd vii 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM viii Contents 5 Consciousness: The Transcendent Hypothesis 101 1. Consciousness and transcendence 101 2. The problem in a dream 103 3. The transcendent hypothesis I: Two traditional themes 105 4. The transcendent hypothesis II: Introspection and perception 108 5. The transcendent hypothesis III: Appearance and reality 114 6. The transcendent hypothesis IV: Idealism and realism 117 7. Is it true? 120 6 Time 123 1. Time in and out of the framework 123 2. Time and objective thought 126 3. The block theory 131 4. Time and transcendence 135 5. Respite without consolation 144 7 Universals 147 1. Universals and the meaning of life 147 2. Universals, ontology and mind 152 3. Universals and the transcendent hypothesis 156 4. Representation and the objective world 163 5. Plato’s nascent nihilism 167 8 Nihilism, Transcendence and Philosophy 169 1. Living with nihilism 169 2. The role of philosophy 176 3. Spirituality and the framework online 182 N o t e s 185 Bibliography 207 Name Index 217 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd viii 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM Preface This book is about the connection between that enigmatic area of human interest called ‘philosophy’ and the meaninglessness of life; and about why the latter is neither good nor bad, but rather just a neutral fact. I have tried to emulate the great philosophers of the past by aspiring to a systematic treatment of a number of different philosophical issues, within the context provided by my overarching themes of the nature of philosophy and life’s meaninglessness. (I call the claim that reality is meaningless ‘nihilism’ – which I pronounce ‘nile-ism’ (as in ‘annihilation’); I don’t say the ‘h’ in ‘which’ either.) The main issues I treat are consciousness, time and universals. Covering so much ground in an integrated work is a very unusual approach within the tradition of analytic philosophy, to which I take myself to belong (though I draw extensively from the Continental and Eastern traditions). But however obsolete the acknowledged historical greats and their systems may now be thought to be in some quarters, and however many times they have been criticized, they still undeniably occupy the dominant place within our philosophical culture; almost completely outside the profession, but to a high degree within it as well. And I think that is a good thing. Big ideas are interesting and can change how people think. Without them, the contemporary profession of academic philosophy would have far less to talk about, and what it did say would be of considerably less interest than the sweeping visions which actually, in the vast majority of cases, draw people to philosophy; whether to become students, or just as a casual interest. As such, I thought it best to follow the lead of the greats, rather than more recent, modest and piece-meal trends; on this occasion. I may well not have succeeded; I have certainly not gone as far down the road to a ‘system’ as the greats would expect of me, given their more demanding sense of the term; and I may not have come up with anything original enough to justify the effort. But nevertheless, that is what I was trying to do, and I think it was a good aim. A really philosophical one; ‘philosophical’ is a merit-term in my vocabulary. This book took me ages: I started on 28 June 2004 and finished today. A statement like that would irritate me if I read it at the start of someone else’s book, because I’d wonder how anyone could take so long; it seems like a boast. But the explanation is not that it was an incredibly long job requiring massive scholarly commitment – or whatever – but rather that it was an ambition and background theme to my life, during the decade in which my children Dinah and Milford were born. After the excitable first draft I wrote in 2004, I did keep coming back to it (whenever I had the chance and inclination), and it was never terribly far from my thoughts. But I only convinced myself that it was destined to become a reality in 2010; and thereafter had frequent doubts about whether I’d been right, once I got down to the serious business of writing the thing between 2012 and 2014. 9781474247702_Fm_Final_txt_prf.indd ix 8/26/2015 5:20:44 PM x Preface I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents Phillip and Terena Tartaglia for an upbringing that emphasized the importance of ambition, and for providing me every opportunity to realize my ambitions within their power. And I am always very grateful to my teachers in philosophy, Tim Crane and J. J. Valberg, who set me on the right track to start with, and helped me get into the profession. If it hadn’t been for Jerry’s lectures on Heidegger, I would never have wanted to be a philosopher in the first place; his own original philosophy was to become one of my major influences, as should become clear in this book. And if Tim hadn’t thought my essays on (e.g.) Russell’s Theory of Descriptions were good, then I would have scrapped the idea of a career in philosophy and looked elsewhere. Thanks are also due to Keele University for giving me three distinct periods of research leave to work on this book; the second was wonderful because I was able to spend it in Ponte de Lima in the Minho (that’s where it started to take on its current shape: amid the caipirinhas, arroz de sarrabulho and folklore). And finally, there are a number of people who have directly affected the content here and there – in various different ways – all of whom I would like to thank. They are: Sophie Allen, Sorin Baiasu, Tom Birch, Darragh Byrne, George Carpenter, Thomas Dixon, Zo Hoida, Stephen Leach, Artur Szutta, J. J. Valberg, Damian Veal and Dave Windross. James Tartaglia, Royal Sutton Coldfield, 1 March 2015 Note to Reader I have referred to endnotes in two different ways: When there is extra commentary, discussion, or illustration of the point in the main text, I have used superscript, as so.