scholarly journals Dying for a Cause: Meaning, Commitment, and Self-Sacrifice

2021 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 57-80
Author(s):  
Antti Kauppinen
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Student Resistance ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Empirical Psychology ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
White Rose ◽  
Relevant Work ◽  
Good Cause

AbstractSome people willingly risk or give up their lives for something they deeply believe in, for instance standing up to a dictator. A good example of this are members of the White Rose student resistance group, who rebelled against the Nazi regime and paid for it with their lives. I argue that when the cause is good, such risky activities (and even deaths themselves) can contribute to meaning in life in its different forms – meaning-as-mattering, meaning-as-purpose, and meaning-as-intelligibility. Such cases highlight the importance of integrity, or living up to one's commitments, in meaningful living, or dying, as it may be, as well as the risk involved in commitment, since if you die for a bad cause, you have only harmed yourself. However, if leading a more rather than less meaningful life benefits rather than harms you, there are possible scenarios in which you yourself are better off dying for a good cause than living a longer moderately happy life. This presents a version of a well-known puzzle: what, then, makes dying for a cause a self-sacrifice, as it usually seems to be? I sketch some possible answers, and critically examine relevant work in empirical psychology.

Cardiovascular disease and meaning in life: A systematic literature review and conceptual model

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Joel Vos
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Systematic Literature Review ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Psychological Treatments

Abstract Objectives Previous studies have shown that psychological stress and mental health problems increase the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, such as heart attack or stroke. Furthermore, after CVD events, the majority of patients report large stress. However, psychological treatments have only modest effects in CVD patients. Therefore, it has been argued that new conceptual models are needed to understand the aetiology of stress and mental health problems in CVD patients. Therefore, this study included a systematic literature review and a conceptual model on the role of meaning in life for psychological stress, mental health, and CVD risks. Methods A systematic literature review was conducted on relationships between CVD and meaning in life. PRISMA/MOOSE review guidelines were followed. These findings were used to build a conceptual model. Results The literature review included 113 studies on meaning and CVD. The included studies described meaning as a predictor of cardiovascular risks and health, meaning-centered needs of patients in conversations with medical staff, meaning-centered changes after CVD events, meaning-centered coping with CVD, meaning as motivator of CVD-related lifestyle changes, and meaning as an element in psychological treatments of CVD patients. In sum, the literature showed that a central clinical concern for patients is their question how to live a meaningful life despite CVD. Meaning-centered concerns seem to lead to lower motivation to make lifestyle changes, more psychological stress, lower quality-of-life, worse physical well-being, and increased CVD risk. The ability to live a meaningful life after CVD events is related with lower stress, better mental health, and several biomarkers. Significance of results An evidence-based conceptual framework was developed for the relationship between meaning and CVD. It may be hypothesized CVD patients may benefit from psychological therapies focused on meaning.

scholarly journals The simple living of Leo Tolstoy and the slippery slope of consumerism in a context of poverty: A pastoral guide

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah K. Tenai
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Slippery Slope ◽  
Leo Tolstoy ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Material Wealth ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Poverty Levels ◽  
Excessive Accumulation ◽  
Trapping Effects

The nature of consumerism, which manifests in the belief that excessive accumulation of material goods represents a fuller and more meaningful life, is a growing global phenomenon, and has an effect on both the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’. In addition, poverty levels globally and in Kenya in particular, remain unacceptably high. The situation of poverty in Kenya is partly worsened by the trapping effects of consumerism. The life of a wealthy and prosperous writer, Leo Tolstoy, who succumbed to depression in spite of his fame and material wealth, is examined with a view to establish how he overcame his depression and found meaning in life. The lessons he learnt from turning to a study of the peasantry are extrapolated and proposed for the churches’ response to the challenge of consumerism in contexts of poverty.

Implications

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iddo Landau
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Meaningful Lives

The second chapter presents ten implications of the analysis of meaningfulness suggested in the first chapter. One of these implications is that the degree of meaning in life is not a given that we just have to learn to live with; it can often be changed. Another is that if we want to make an insufficiently meaningful life more meaningful, we should look for what is valuable and try to enhance it in our lives. A third is that it is wrong that if what is meaningful to us changes from time to time our lives are not meaningful. It is also argued that we can lead meaningful lives without being unique.

The meaningful life in Japan and the United States: Levels and correlates of meaning in life

2008 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 660-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael F. Steger ◽  
Yoshito Kawabata ◽  
Satoshi Shimai ◽  
Keiko Otake
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Meaningful Life

scholarly journals Meaning in Life and the Metaphysics of Value

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daan Evers
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Desire Satisfaction ◽  
Objective Value ◽  
In Virtue Of

According to subjectivist views about a meaningful life, ones life is meaningful in virtue of desire satisfaction or feelings of fulfilment. Standard counterexamples consist of satisfaction found through trivial or immoral tasks. In response to such examples, many philosophers require that the tasks one is devoted to are objectively valuable, or have objectively valuable consequences. I argue that the counterexamples to subjectivism do not require objective value for meaning in life. I also consider other reasons for thinking that meaning in life requires objective value and raise doubts about their strength. Finally, I argue that beauty is not plausibly objective, but that it seems important for meaning. This puts pressure on the objectivist to explain why objectivity matters in the case of other values.

Narrative and Meaning in Life

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 545-571
Author(s):  
Helena de Bres
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Meaningful Life

Many theorists have argued that the meaningfulness of a life is related in some way to the narrative or story that can be told about that life. Relationists claim that a life gains in meaning when a particular set of “narrative relations” obtain between the events that constitute it. Recountists claim that it is the telling of a story about those relations, not the relations themselves, that confers meaning. After identifying problems with existing versions of both of these positions, this paper introduces a new and more satisfying variant of Recountism, centered on the old-fashioned idea that a meaningful life is, in part, an intelligible one. I argue that personal narration does play a role in a meaningful life and that my “Fitting Story” account provides the best explanation of how and why that is so.

Purpose in Life as a Function of Religious versus Secular Beliefs

1988 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 335-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Weinstein ◽  
Anton De Man ◽  
Linda Almaguer
Keyword(s):  
Religious Belief ◽  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Purpose In Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Life Test ◽  
Meaningful Life ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Dominican Sisters ◽  
Purpose In Life Test

Scores of 20 Catholic and 25 Mennonite students on the Purpose-in-Life Test were not significantly different. When scores of Mennonite subjects were compared with those of Dominican Sisters, Protestants, Recent Converts, and Seculars, the Mennorutes' scores indicated significantly less meaning in life than each of the other groups. Further comparisons among the various groups identified a significant difference between the Dominican Sisters and the Catholic students. The findings are discussed in terms of the prevailing evidence that religious belief strengthens the conviction to live a full, meaningful life.

scholarly journals Meaningful life in the time of Corona-economics

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-119
Author(s):  
James Tyner ◽  
Stian Rice
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Meaningful Life

The COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to think more deeply about who and what we value in society, with value determined not on conditions set by capital but instead on achieving meaning in life. In this commentary, we pose a series of interconnected questions to geography: What does it mean to live a meaningful life? Furthermore, is such a life possible under capitalism? And what does a society that prioritizes meaningful life look like?

Presentation of the Sources of Meaning Card Method: The SoMeCaM

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter la Cour ◽  
Tatjana Schnell
Keyword(s):  
Meaning In Life ◽  
Personal Meaning ◽  
Personal Change ◽  
Empirical Psychology ◽  
Personal Significance ◽  
Existential Theory ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Personal Content

Existential themes and meaning in life are often embedded in all types of psychotherapy, but can be difficult to handle in a systematic way. This article presents a method of assessing and exploring sources of personal meaning with a client during a 1-hour session. The method is rooted in existential theory as well in contemporary empirical psychology on sources of meaning. The Sources of Meaning Card Method comprises three stages. (a) From a total of 26 cards with printed statements concerning possible sources of meaning, the clients are asked to select 3 to 5 cards of most important personal content. (b) With each of these cards, a semistructured conversation is initiated with regard to the statement’s meaning, personal significance, actual importance, threats, and possibilities for personal change. (c) The therapist summarizes the client’s priorities, decisions, and essential parts of the conversation at the end of the session. The method is presented in four language versions.

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