PHI 192 Lecture : February 20 Lecture Notes.docx

• School: Syracuse University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 192
• Professor: Ben Bradley

Document Summary

Taylor reading: does taylor think human life can be meaningful, does taylor think human life can be valuable, sisyphus pushing stone up the hill = meaningless life (no point) What are desires: a desire is an attitude. It is about something: desires can be fulfilled or frustrated, desires have intensities and durations, a desire can be fulfilled or frustrated whether or not the person realizes it. Fulfilling a desire does not require having a feeling of satisfaction. Df1: every desire fulfillment is intrinsically good; every desire frustration is intrinsically bad. Df2: the intrinsic value of a desire fulfillment is equal to (the intensity of the desire) times (the duration of the having the desire). Df3: the intrinsic value of a person"s life = sum of the intrinsic values of the desire fulfillments and frustrations that life contains. The stranger on the train argument against desire fulfillment.