Value, purposeness and Meaning of Life: An Appraisal of Garrett Thomson's Theory

The question of “what is the meaning of life?” has been the subject of a detailed discussion by Garrett Thomson in his book On the Meaning of Life. He considers “purposefulness” just a necessary condition for meaningfulness of life and believes that life is inherently valuable, other than being a means to an exalted or non-exalted end. Thomson argues that the meaning of life is the status of life with regard to transcendental truth of the world. In his view, understanding the meaning of life has to have practical implications for the way of life. Moreover, he believes, another element of meaningfulness is to relate with values beyond our existence. Love, he continues, is the most complicated relationship between human beings and it is through such a relation that they achieve a kind of “us-consciousness” by way of which participate in their values and, hence, make their process of lives more meaningful. In the end, Thomson refers to plan of life of an individual which is influenced by her background knowledge and understanding, a plan that leaves its impact on the interpretation of the process of her life. In this paper, Thomson’s views on evaluating the mentioned arguments shall be introduced, criticized and evaluated.