What is the Meaning of Life?

For our first Publosophy meet-up in September, we dived straight into one of the most vexing questions in modern philosophy:
What is the Meaning of Life?

We thought we’d start off with a bang and that’s exactly what we got with our guest speaker and one of Newcastle’s most distinguished philosophers, Russell Blackford.

Paul and Russell dived straight into the topic, exploring the origins of this question - which surprisingly only date back around 200 years or so, at least in Western Philosophy. Before that, the meaning of life, particularly for ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, was already determined by the cosmos. Their focus was more on how we live the ‘good life’, rather than trying to find the meaning of it.

We examined the different schools of philosophy, from Camus and the absurdist viewpoint, to theology and its influence over the period between ancient and medieval philosophy eras, to the existentialists like Heidegger, Sartre and de Beavoir.

Russell was generous in sharing his own views on the meaning of life, or in fact whether there is one, and leaning into the idea that perhaps meaning comes from what we make of our own lives, a view also shared by Paul.

It was a great first night with over 40 Publosophers turning up mid week to enjoy some lively and thought-provoking conversation.

Read the presentation deck and see the gallery from the night below.

View the presentation from the night below. Scroll to view all slides.