In Susan Wolf’s paper “The Meanings of Lives,” she discusses the qualifications of and the innate human yearning for a meaningful and fulfilling life. The foundation for her argument lies in her three criterion for meaning which include involvement, purpose, and success. She then continues her argument by explaining the opposite of each of these criterion as a stereotypical person. However, Wolf’s assertion suffers from being overly general in that it makes the assumption that all humans have access to the same resources and opportunities to perform the tasks required to be considered meaningful by her standards. As a result, while she does propose valid points, such as the three criteria, her failure to take into account abnormal circumstances
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Susan Wolf argues that there are three main qualities of a meaningless life which are lack of involvement, inanity, and ineffectiveness. She personifies each of these traits into realistic individuals to further express her reasoning. For instance, to demonstrate lack of involvement, she designates the title “The Blob” to an individual “whose life is lived in hazy passivity … at a not unpleasant level of consciousness … but unconnected to anyone or anything.” Then, to display inanity, she emphasizes the lives of those “whose dominant activities seem pointless, useless, or empty” such as those of socialites or avaricious executives. Finally, to express ineffectiveness, she argues that individuals who classify as “Bankrupt,” referring to those who are unsuccessful in their endeavors due in no part to their own actions, provide an adequate example. Therefore, in order to have a meaningful life, one must embody the opposite traits: involvement, purpose, and success. She then combines these three traits into the simple phrase that “one’s life [must] be actively and somewhat successfully engaged in projects of positive value.” Throughout her paper, she refers back to this central point in her discussion and assessment of the meanings of
Susan Wolf argues that there are three main qualities of a meaningless life which are lack of involvement, inanity, and ineffectiveness. She personifies each of these traits into realistic individuals to further express her reasoning. For instance, to demonstrate lack of involvement, she designates the title “The Blob” to an individual “whose life is lived in hazy passivity … at a not unpleasant level of consciousness … but unconnected to anyone or anything.” Then, to display inanity, she emphasizes the lives of those “whose dominant activities seem pointless, useless, or empty” such as those of socialites or avaricious executives. Finally, to express ineffectiveness, she argues that individuals who classify as “Bankrupt,” referring to those who are unsuccessful in their endeavors due in no part to their own actions, provide an adequate example. Therefore, in order to have a meaningful life, one must embody the opposite traits: involvement, purpose, and success. She then combines these three traits into the simple phrase that “one’s life [must] be actively and somewhat successfully engaged in projects of positive value.” Throughout her paper, she refers back to this central point in her discussion and assessment of the meanings of