The Meaning of Life

• An intelligent, witty, and refreshingly approachable guide to the ultimate question.
• Ties in philosophy and literature - from the 12th century scholastics to Marx, Schopenhauer, Sartre, and Beckett.
• Reveals how the the philosophy of language can be applied to questions of any kind, how meaning can be understood and applied, and where the limits of questioning lie.
• Eagleton suggests that the problem of the meaning of life arose with modernity. He looks at the cultural and philosophical reasons for this, and examines the meaninglessness that appears to plague our times - from 'New Age softheadedness' to fundamentalism.
• After surveying a variety of possible candidates, Eagleton suggests his own, perhaps surprising, conclusion to the answer to the meaning of life.

Readership: Will interest anyone seeking an accessible yet intelligent view of how we have lost - and how we might find - meaning in life. It will be of particular interest to students of philosophy (particularly ethics, philosophy of religion, and 19th and 20th century existentialism); literature; modernism; and religion.

Terry Eagleton, John Edward Taylor Professor of English at the University of Manchester

"A charming personal voyage round himself, I can only say it left me thoroughly surprised - and delighted." - Simon Jenkins, TLS Books of the Year

"wonders never cease. This is popular philosophy by an amateur in the best sense of the word, a man who clearly loves the stuff and writes plain English...[Eagleton] makes his case well and with a light touch." - Simon Jenkins, The Guardian (Review)

"It is a stimulating and often entertaining, if at times rather breathless, Cook's tour around the chief monuments of western philosophy and literature...The Meaning of Life is unusual and refreshing." - John Gray, The Independent

"The book's a little gem." - Suzanne Harrington, Irish Examiner (Cork)

"A lively starting point for late-night debate." - John Cornwell, Sunday Times

"Warm intellectual pleasure...meticulous treatment of the subject...It looks like Eagleton got it right." - Mario Pisani, The Financial Times

"His witty eclecticism is perfect for such a lofty subject" - Leopold Froehlich, Playboy

"It dazzles..."

"The name Terry Eagleton...assures us of stimulation, style, sparkling, sometimes acerbic, wit, and wide-ranging erudition. In other words he is eminently readable...[a] commendably pocket-sized book." - Gordon Parsons, Morning Star

Preface
1: Questions and Answers
2: The Problem of Meaning
3: The Eclipse of Meaning
4: Is Life What You Make It?