Philosophical Approaches to Posing and Resolving the Question of the Meaning of Life in the Context of Growing Influence of the Analytical Tradition

Abstract

The subject of this study is the contemporary—and, given the nature of the discipline, partly historical—state of philosophical perspectives on the problem of the meaning of life. In view of the originality, progressiveness, and multiplicity of ethical ideas advanced in recent decades by thinkers within the Anglo-American tradition, this work synthesizes classical approaches and theories of the meaning of life with the most influential inquiries in analytic philosophy into a unified conceptual framework. Profound transformations in culture and philosophy reveal a deep-seated tension between the psycho-emotional perception of the topic at the everyday level and the ideas generated by the rigor of contemporary philosophizing. This tension primarily points to the polysemy of the terms "life" and "meaning," which gives rise to divergent interpretations of the very question concerning the meaning of life and, consequently, to different strategies for its interpretation. The methodological foundation of this article comprises problem-chronological and comprehensive theoretical analysis, linguistic analysis, logical analysis, classification, and forecasting. The novelty of our material lies both in a systematization of the entire diversity of philosophical views on the meaning of life, and in the adaptation of the principal tenets of analytic philosophy on the chosen problem to the Russian language and to Russian-language practices of constructing philosophical discourse. The conclusions reached by the authors attest to a renewed impetus that the question of the meaning of life is experiencing. All contemporary theories of the meaning of life are presented in their complex, in a manner that crystallizes the essence of each. We propose that these theories be distributed into several groups that order the entire spectrum of similarities and differences in philosophical positions on the subject. Finally, we note a multitude of insufficiently explored aspects of the problem, which suggest probable vectors for further researches. Overall, this work demonstrates the clear theoretical promise of the topic and may serve as material not only for an in-depth examination of particular issues it raises, but also for inquiries by opponents of the propositions set forth herein.