In this conversation Prof. Mirela Oliva takes up the big question of how we can come to know the meaning of life. She suggests that there are three questions bound up in one: (1) the cosmic question, “What is the meaning ‘of it all’?”; the ethical question, “What can I do to make my life meaningful?”; and the aesthetic question, “What is the story of my life?” (And who “writes” this story?)
She also takes up related questions such as “Is the meaning of life outside of me?” “Is the purpose of my life given to me, or do I create my own?” And finally, we discuss the question, “Is there a Catholic philosophy?” and what Plato might teach us about a philosophy that requires the exclusion of the Divine.
Resources to consider:
Plato, Republic
Augustine, On the Trinity
Aquinas, Summa Theologiae
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method
Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
Robert Nozick, The Examined Life: Philosophical Explanations
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue
John Martin Fischer, Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will
Films: Truman Show, The Story of Adele. H.
Mirela Oliva, "Gadamer and Theology"
Mirela Oliva, "Causation and the Narrative Meaning of Life"
