In this conversation Prof. Mirela Oliva takes up the big question of how we can come to know the meaning of life. She suggests that there are three questions bound up in one: (1) the cosmic question, “What is the meaning ‘of it all’?”; the ethical question, “What can I do to make my life meaningful?”; and the aesthetic question, “What is the story of my life?” (And who “writes” this story?)

She also takes up related questions such as “Is the meaning of life outside of me?” “Is the purpose of my life given to me, or do I create my own?” And finally, we discuss the question, “Is there a Catholic philosophy?” and what Plato might teach us about a philosophy that requires the exclusion of the Divine.

Resources to consider:

Plato, Republic

Augustine, On the Trinity

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method

Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Robert Nozick, The Examined Life: Philosophical Explanations

Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

John Martin Fischer, Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death, and Free Will

Films: Truman Show, The Story of Adele. H.

Mirela Oliva, "Gadamer and Theology"

Mirela Oliva, "Causation and the Narrative Meaning of Life"