Our Modern Meaningless Lives: An Introduction

In this lecture series, we delve into one of the greatest mysteries of modern existence: the loss of meaning in our lives. How did a seemingly obscure philosophy, logical positivism, lead to the marginalization of questions about the meaning of life? Once central to human inquiry, these questions now seem trivialized or irrelevant.

Drawing on Julie Reuben's insightful book, The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality, we explore how early 20th-century developments reshaped our understanding of knowledge, elevating scientific facts while dismissing moral and existential questions as mere noise.

Join us as we unravel the impact of logical positivism and its aftermath on education and society. We address crucial questions such as:

How can we best spend our lives and make the most of our potential?
Why did logical positivism become so influential despite its flaws?
How did the academic world respond to its collapse, and why hasn't a more holistic approach to knowledge emerged?
What new paths can we explore in our quest for understanding the meaning of life?
What other factors might have contributed to the shift away from existential inquiries?
This introductory exploration sets the stage for a deeper investigation into these vital issues. Stay tuned for more in-depth discussions in upcoming lectures.

Keywords: Knowledge, Meaning of Life, Logical Positivism, Julie Reuben, Philosophy, Education, Modern Thought, Existential Questions, Academic Transformation

1. Our Meaningless Modern Lives: Part 1 Dr. Asad Zaman For writeup & video- talk,see : bit.ly/ Azomml

2. Your Wish is My Command! Imagine you had a genie who could grant you one wish. But you can only wish for KNOWLEDGE. What kind of knowledge would you ask for?

3. What About Wealth? How can I become a millionaire quickly?

4. Or Love? How can I become maximally attractive to the opposite sex?

5. Or Power? How can I wield the maximum amount of power?

6. Or Pleasure? How can I maximize the pleasure I feel?

7. What if these are illusions? Wealth: What if the Midas touch blinds me to true happiness, leaving me lonely and bitter with only piles of gold? Pleasure: What if seeking pleasure leads to emptiness, with fleeting moments of joy but no lasting fulfillment? Love: What if my pursuit of love is based on superficial attraction, resulting in heartbreak and disappointment? Power: What if the quest for power isolates me, causing fear and distrust instead of respect and contentment?

8. What would be better questions to ask?

9. Perhaps Happiness lies Within, not Without? Who am I? What could I become? What are the hidden potentials within myself? Which of the many selves I could become are the best versions of myself to strive for? How can I lead the good life, making the best possible use of the precious few moments granted to me?

10. So Many Questions, So Few Answers! Perhaps The Genie is More Useful Than We Thought? Initially, we might be disappointed that the Genie can only grant us knowledge. We might have wished for wealth, love, power, or pleasure. Upon reflection, the right kind of knowledge may be more precious than any of these.

11. Forgotten Ancient Wisdom

12. He gives wisdom to whom He wills, and whoever has been given wisdom has certainly been given abundant good- Quran (2:269) Knowledge is the greatest treasure!

13. Know Thyself Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom – Socrates.

14. An unexamined life is not worth living Plato’s Apology

15. "Chase after money and power and your heart will never unclench. Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.“ Lao Tzu Ancient Wisdom: Do not chase after wealth, power, fame!

16. How Was All This Ancient Wisdom Forgotten?

17. How could we forget the meaning of life? Our goal is only to raise the question. We will explore one possible answer. Deeper discussion will be deferred to later portions of the talk

18. Modernity & Meaninglessness

19. The Absurdity of Life "The absurd is born out of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world."— Albert Camus, "The Myth of Sisyphus"

20. The Void - Jean-Paul Sartre "Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal."— Jean-Paul Sartre

21. The Anxiety of Choice - Søren Kierkegaard "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."— Søren Kierkegaard, "The Concept of Anxiety"

22. The Futility of Existence - Friedrich Nietzsche "To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering."— Friedrich Nietzsche

23. Are Meaningless Lives worth living? There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. Albert Camus

24. How did we get to our modern meaningless lives? From: Quran: The smallest bit of good you do will be rewarded, while the smallest bit of evil will have consequences. To: AJ Ayer: “Good” and “Evil” are meaningless noise, a pure expression of feelings, like a cry of pain. These terms cannot be evaluated logically or empirically for being true or false.

25. Understanding Modernity: First Steps As a starting point, let us explore a simple answer, based on suggestions by Julie Reuben in her remarkable book The Making of the Modern University: Intellectual Transformation and the Marginalization of Morality .

26. The Context:The Role of Universities

27. Universities are warehouses of accumulated knowledge Human knowledge has been accumulated over thousands of years through the collective effort of millions of scholars. Universities select the most important elements from this vast repository to pass on to the next generation.

28. The Role of Education in Shaping the Future How we educate our children shapes the future of humanity. The accumulated knowledge is too vast to impart in toto. The portion of knowledge selected from our collective heritage for transmission to our youth is critically important.

29. The Importance of Knowledge Selection The selection of knowledge for education is governed by dominant conceptions of knowledge. Dominant conceptions of knowledge have changed radically over time. These selections influence the values and priorities of future generations.

30. Julie Reuben: The main narrative: the separation of knowledge and morality in American universities. This resulted from changes in the conception of knowledge, fragmenting the past unity.

31. Unity of Truth: In the 19 th Century, Intellectuals believed that truth had spiritual, moral, and cognitive dimensions. This broad conception of truth unified knowledge, integrating moral and spiritual values with empirical facts.

32. Why was all truth united? all knowledge was knowledge of the creation of one God. Naturally, all of the creation formed a coherent whole. And knowledge of all aspects would also be coherent. In seeking knowledge, we are seeking to know God, through His works. As such, all knowledge would lead us to better knowledge of God. Object of learning was eupraxia, "well acting." Truth and goodness and happiness were one.

33. The Shattering of Truth

34. Role of Logical Positivism Logical positivists, such as A.J. Ayer, argued that only scientific statements could qualify as knowledge. They claimed that moral statements were mere expressions of feeling and could not be objectively verified. Quote from A.J. Ayer (1936): “ We can now see why it is impossible to find a criterion for determining the validity of ethical judgments... They are pure expressions of feeling and as such do not come under the category of truth and falsehood .” SCIENCE MORALS

35. Impact on Universities and Knowledge This philosophical shift led to the marginalization of moral and subjective knowledge within academic institutions. Universities, as centers of knowledge, began to focus exclusively on empirical science, neglecting moral education. This change propagated the view that morality was meaningless, influencing public perception and societal values.

36. Loss of Meaning - according to this narrative Logical Positivism rose to dominance in early 20 th Century The philosophy elevated scientific knowledge of the external world, and reduced morality, knowledge of our internal world, to noise. The meaning of life lies inside us, and was therefore excluded from the realm of knowledge – making it inaccessible.

37. Concluding Remarks This is a first pass at attempting to understand one of the greatest mysteries of modern existence: The Loss of Meaning. This narrative has some strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps it raises more questions than it answers Some of the questions raised by it are presented in the next few slides

38. Five Questions About the Arch-Villian: Logical Positivism A.J. Ayer (1936) wrote: “ We can now see why it is impossible to find a criterion for determining the validity of ethical judgments. It is not because they have an ‘absolute’ validity which is mysteriously independent of ordinary sense-experience, but because they have no objective validity whatsoever. They are pure expressions of feeling and as such do not come under the category of truth and falsehood. They are unverifiable for the same reason as a cry of pain or a word of command is unverifiable [as a statement]—because they do not express genuine propositions .”

39. 1: Is a cry of pain “meaningless”? It is part of a universal human language, readily understood around the globe. It elicits immediate responses from anyone who hears it. Babies communicate urgent information using it! Why does LP consider it meaningless?

40. 2: How Did Logical Positivism Become Supreme? Even its most ardent proponents eventually saw this, leading to its spectacular collapse. How did such a flawed philosophy become so influential and pervasive in shaping modern thought?

41. 3: LP collapsed in 1970s. Why have no significant improvements occurred in 50 years? Why were no revisions made to epistemology following the collapse of Logical Positivism in the 1970s? How did the academic world respond to its downfall, and why hasn’t a more holistic approach to knowledge emerged since?

42. Is there a way forward, towards epistemological foundations for meaningful lives? Logical Positivism precludes discussion of the meaning of life, considering it meaningless. With Logical Positivism now abandoned, what new paths can we explore in our quest for understanding the meaning of life? How can we rebuild an epistemological framework that includes these vital existential questions?

43. How Can We Add Depth to This Narrative? This story seems oversimplified and reductive. Can it really be true that an obscure philosophy which emerged in the 20th century, and is not understood by most, blocked us from considering the central question of our lives, which has been discussed for millennia? What other factors might have contributed to this shift in focus?

44. Concluding Slide This was just an introductory exploration of the central question we all face in our lives: How can we lead the best possible life, making the maximum use of the potential within us? We will explore the questions raised before in greater depths in later portions of this lecture.

45. Links to Related Materials For my life-experiences which led to my current stance, see “ Lessons MIT did not Teach Me “ {bit.ly/mit4az} Epistemology & the Loss of Meaning: Talk at Torrens University {bit.ly/ Azelm } The Emergence of Logical Positivism: {bit.ly/ Azelp } Marginalization of Morality in Modern Education: {bit.ly/ Azmme } A writeup and video-talk for these slides: {bit.ly/ Azomml }