The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions

By: Jay L. Garfield, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Jay L. Garfield

Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

What is the meaning of life?

It's a question every thoughtful person has pondered at one time or another. Indeed, it may be the biggest question of all - at once profound and universal, but also deeply personal.

We want to understand the world in which we live, but we also want to understand how to make our own lives as meaningful as possible; to know not only why we're living, but that we're doing it with intention, purpose, and ethical commitment. But how, exactly, do we find that meaning, and develop that commitment? How can we grasp why we are here? Or how we should proceed? And to whom, exactly, we should listen as we shape the path we will walk? This comprehensive 36-lecture series from a much-honored scholar is an invigorating way to begin or continue your pursuit of these questions, and it requires no previous background in philosophical or religious thought.

It offers a rigorous and wide-ranging exploration of what various spiritual, religious, and philosophical traditions from both the East and West have contributed to this profound line of questioning, sharing insights from sources that include ancient Indian texts, such as:

• The Bhagavad-Gita
• Foundational Chinese texts like the Daodejing and the Chuang Tzu
• Classical Western texts, such as Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and Marcus Aurelius's Meditations
• Modern philosophers and writers like David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Leo Tolstoy
• The unique perspectives offered by Native Americans, in this case, the Lakota Sioux medicine man and writer, John Lame Deer
• More recent and contemporary philosophers, such as Mohandas Gandhi and the Dalai Lama

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2011 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2011 The Great Courses

A Gem

A well-presented overview of the great philosophical approaches to finding a meaning to life. Provoking.

one of the best

Extremely rewarding. Professor Garfield is an engaging and enthusiastic guide. Worth multiple listens. Requires some outside reading for maximum appreciation and enjoyment.

A great listen!

This lecture series is wonderfully educational and enjoyable. It does a great job of covering a very long history of philosophy concisely while keeping the listener engaged.

a must read

Would you consider the audio edition of The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions to be better than the print version?

Yes, because these are lectures with the intonations and pauses, etc. breathing life into the words and feelings

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions?

the summation was quite helpful

What does Professor Jay L. Garfield bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

the power of the words

If you could give The Meaning of Life: Perspectives from the World's Great Intellectual Traditions a new subtitle, what would it be?

belief/values based on comparative knowledge

Any additional comments?

everyone should listen to these lectures. I continually rewound to better and more profoundly understand. I'll listen to these again in a year or two.

Excellent lecture

This audiobook has introduced me to different perspective in life and to excellent texts that great philosophers has written throughout time.
I would recommend this audiobook to whomever ponders on the great question "what is the meaning of life" on a daily basis. This course will definitely open new horizons for you.

The greatest of the great courses

I have purchased numerous audio versions of the great courses series and found this to be amongst the best. The depth of insight was beneficial and the energy of the delivery compelling . Very well done

Stellar!

Throughly enjoyed Professor Garfield’s course ! Thoughtful and deep . He clearly knows his subject and I learned a lot .

Perfect overview

Great narration. Enthusiasm and expertise. Highly recommended for people looking for an answer or an overview of existing ideas before creating their own ;). Nice one.

Best in it's class

I've read a 60 lecture great courses on philosophy and it didn't feel as clear. Focusing on meaning of life only and then going through the key philosophies feels much more smooth.

I almost made it 4 stars because the last few lectures I just couldn't get into. But it may be just that post modern philosophy doesn't flow well for me.

this is my favorite audible title

this course is what it would be like if i asked the teaching company to make a course just for me. more broadly, it's a course suited for anyone who looked to philosophy for "meaning of life" questions, perhaps in a university, and found very little to go by. well, this is it

it covers world philosophy and religions in particular. it dabbles in the western philosophical and religious tradition, but mainly focuses on the places like india and china. it basically assumed you're familiar with western ideas and offers these as a counterpoint, without overly relying on unstated concepts taken for granted

it has a bias like any course must. the bias is towards ancient and postmodern ideas. western modernism is composed of just a handful of lectures. i think this is a good bias for two reasons: the course, as it was originally intended, was for the great courses program, which means the intended audience is generally familiar with the ideas invoked in that area. the second is more controversial

frankly, the particular values of modernism of untrammeled progress, growth, and unfettered scientific and technological advance have—past tense—destroyed the earth. even if we immediately stopped polluting the earth with carbon dioxide, the fact remains that the earth will continue to warm for decades, it not centuries. it would take global coordination just to mitigate what will already happen. nothing can be done about what catastrophes we've already set in place

when i hear these lectures, i hear the perfect predictions of and beginning of responses to out global fate. the fact is, whoever is alive in one hundred years won't benefit from capitalist apologies. they're going to benefit from inspirations for living simply, perhaps harshly. the 2090's may be more like the warring states period of chinese history under which laozi and confucius were said to have written than the "glory" days of the 1990's. i think that's the world we should be preparing for, and i think these philosophies are the key to living and dying well when the time comes

i believe any human can benefit from this title who isn't already knowledgable with literally all the ideas therein. shy of that, there is great value in learning all these ideas