Meaning, anti-alienation, and fulfillment

Chad Stevenson

doi:10.1111/sjp.12628

Meaning, anti-alienation, and fulfillment

Chad Stevenson^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research School of Humanities & the Arts

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

One intuition that motivates subjectivist theories about meaning in life is the anti-alienation intuition, that is, for a life to be meaningful it must engage with the person whose life it is. This article contends that the anti-alienation and subjectivist theories it motivates are best understood as tracking fulfillment in life; this is an axiologically distinct evaluative dimension a life can have, which stands apart from meaning.

Original language	English
Number of pages	19
Journal	Southern Journal of Philosophy
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12628
Publication status	Published - 15 Apr 2025

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10.1111/sjp.12628Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

4 Article
1 Doctoral thesis

Consequentialism, Welfarism, and Meaning in Life
Stevenson, C., 2024, In: Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. 105, 4, p. 447-604 22 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
Lucky Idiots and Incompetent Villains: Luck and Responsibility in Meaningful Lives
Stevenson, C. M., Apr 2024, In: Philosophia. 52, p. 417-433 17 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Asymmetric welfarism about meaning in life
Stevenson, C. M., 20 Jan 2023, (E-pub ahead of print) 152 p.
Research output: Theses and Dissertations › Doctoral thesis

Cite this

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title = "Meaning, anti-alienation, and fulfillment",

abstract = "One intuition that motivates subjectivist theories about meaning in life is the anti-alienation intuition, that is, for a life to be meaningful it must engage with the person whose life it is. This article contends that the anti-alienation and subjectivist theories it motivates are best understood as tracking fulfillment in life; this is an axiologically distinct evaluative dimension a life can have, which stands apart from meaning.",

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AB - One intuition that motivates subjectivist theories about meaning in life is the anti-alienation intuition, that is, for a life to be meaningful it must engage with the person whose life it is. This article contends that the anti-alienation and subjectivist theories it motivates are best understood as tracking fulfillment in life; this is an axiologically distinct evaluative dimension a life can have, which stands apart from meaning.

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Meaning, anti-alienation, and fulfillment

Abstract

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Research output

Consequentialism, Welfarism, and Meaning in Life

Lucky Idiots and Incompetent Villains: Luck and Responsibility in Meaningful Lives

Asymmetric welfarism about meaning in life

Cite this