Is the desire for life rational?

Religious Studies:1-19 (forthcoming)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The question of the meaning of life has long been thought to be closely intertwined with that of the existence of God. I offer a new theistic, anti-naturalist argument from the meaning of life. It is argued that the desire for life is irrational on naturalism, since there would be no good reason to believe that life is worthwhile on the whole if naturalism were true. As I show, the same cannot be argued of theism. Since it is clear that the desire for life is not irrational, it is concluded that we have strong reason to prefer theism over naturalism.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,551

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-09-30

Downloads
42 (#534,616)

6 months
14 (#233,812)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Christophe de Ray
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

A Darwinian dilemma for realist theories of value.Sharon Street - 2006 - Philosophical Studies 127 (1):109-166.
Why We Should Reject S.Derek Parfit - 1984 - In Reasons and Persons. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press.
Moral Luck.B. A. O. Williams & T. Nagel - 1976 - Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 50 (1):115-152.
Principia Ethica.George Edward Moore - 1903 - International Journal of Ethics 14 (3):377-382.
The absurd.Thomas Nagel - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (20):716-727.

View all 16 references / Add more references