In this penultimate chapter Hauskeller discusses what is generally thought to be the most fundamental problem with meaning subjectivism, which is the presumed fact that if it were true, we could never be wrong about the meaningfulness of our life. Hauskeller argues that we can indeed be wrong, but only if we mistake our experience for something that it is not or if we falsely believe that life is not meaningful despite experiencing it as meaningful (or meaningless despite experiencing it as meaningless), neither of which undermines meaning subjectivism because what cannot be wrong is the experience of meaning itself. Admittedly, it can still be unfitting to experience one’s life as meaningful, but none of the ways in which it can be unfitting renders the experience of meaning illusory, so that meaning subjectivism can also survive this last challenge unscathed.

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Can the Experience of Meaning Ever Be Illusory?

  • Michael Hauskeller

摘要

In this penultimate chapter Hauskeller discusses what is generally thought to be the most fundamental problem with meaning subjectivism, which is the presumed fact that if it were true, we could never be wrong about the meaningfulness of our life. Hauskeller argues that we can indeed be wrong, but only if we mistake our experience for something that it is not or if we falsely believe that life is not meaningful despite experiencing it as meaningful (or meaningless despite experiencing it as meaningless), neither of which undermines meaning subjectivism because what cannot be wrong is the experience of meaning itself. Admittedly, it can still be unfitting to experience one’s life as meaningful, but none of the ways in which it can be unfitting renders the experience of meaning illusory, so that meaning subjectivism can also survive this last challenge unscathed.