Morality and a meaningful life

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20 Scopus citations

Abstract

I aim to capture the intuition that the moral person is, in virtue of being such, favored over the immoral person to lead a meaningful life. I argue that the reason for this is that the moral person is open to affirmation from others in a way that the immoral person is not. Central to the argument is the idea of psychological health. Being affirmed by others is a fundamental aspect of being psychologically healthy. Thus, I say that being moral and being psychologically healthy dovetail with respect to leading a meaningful life. With this argument regarding psychological health I draw upon, and extend, P.F. Strawson's seminal essay ‘Freedom and Resentment’. Also in this regard, I extend Wittgenstein's argument against the possibility of a private language to social behavior generally.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)405-427
Number of pages23
JournalPhilosophical Papers
Volume34
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2005

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

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