Leading Lives: On Happiness and Narrative Meaning
(2003) In Philosophical Papers 32(3). p.62-77- Abstract
- In contemporary moral philosophy, the standard way of understanding the constituents of the human good is in terms of a fairly limited number of features that contribute to our happiness independently of how they are situated in our lives. Even when this approach is supplemented by Moorean ideas about organic wholes, it still cannot do justice to the deep importance of how things are situated and even when meaning is seen as an important factor, it still tends to be treated as simply another item on the list of constituents. It is argued here that we should abandon this approach in favor of one that recognizes that our lives are best understood in terms of their narrative structure and that treats narrative meaning as a pervasive... (More)
- In contemporary moral philosophy, the standard way of understanding the constituents of the human good is in terms of a fairly limited number of features that contribute to our happiness independently of how they are situated in our lives. Even when this approach is supplemented by Moorean ideas about organic wholes, it still cannot do justice to the deep importance of how things are situated and even when meaning is seen as an important factor, it still tends to be treated as simply another item on the list of constituents. It is argued here that we should abandon this approach in favor of one that recognizes that our lives are best understood in terms of their narrative structure and that treats narrative meaning as a pervasive phenomenon that strongly influences the importance that different features have in making our lives go more or less well. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/145106
- author
- Brännmark, Johan LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2003
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Philosophical Papers
- volume
- 32
- issue
- 3
- pages
- 62 - 77
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:84894156975
- ISSN
- 0556-8641
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- dfffa22b-34bb-40c3-b8ec-4ed7880ce00d (old id 145106)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:44:07
- date last changed
- 2022-02-05 18:10:19
@article{dfffa22b-34bb-40c3-b8ec-4ed7880ce00d,
abstract = {{In contemporary moral philosophy, the standard way of understanding the constituents of the human good is in terms of a fairly limited number of features that contribute to our happiness independently of how they are situated in our lives. Even when this approach is supplemented by Moorean ideas about organic wholes, it still cannot do justice to the deep importance of how things are situated and even when meaning is seen as an important factor, it still tends to be treated as simply another item on the list of constituents. It is argued here that we should abandon this approach in favor of one that recognizes that our lives are best understood in terms of their narrative structure and that treats narrative meaning as a pervasive phenomenon that strongly influences the importance that different features have in making our lives go more or less well.}},
author = {{Brännmark, Johan}},
issn = {{0556-8641}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{3}},
pages = {{62--77}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{Philosophical Papers}},
title = {{Leading Lives: On Happiness and Narrative Meaning}},
volume = {{32}},
year = {{2003}},
}