What is the meaning of life? In the West, this question was considered profound and important in the 1960s through the 1970s in the heyday of existentialism and the popular quest to shape or define one's personal identity outside of conventional categories. Many philosophers subsequently backed away from the question on the grounds that it made no sense: it may be proper to ask questions about the meaning or purpose behind different individual projects, some argued, but to ask about the meaning of life is to commit a category mistake or to assume some discredited philosophy according to which life itself was created to serve a great purpose. Some philosophers revel in there being no meaning or further purpose of life. For example, in The Meaning of Life, Terry Eagleton recommends we see meaning in an understanding of personal interaction modeled after a jazz ensemble, making music simply for its own sake and not for any other purpose.

In this essay I shall argue that the meaning of our delight or sorrow in life depends very much on the truth of some “earnest metaphysical end” or framework.