A Meaning to Life

Overall, the book is informed by both the broadly historical and personal qualities that follow from Ruse's professional expertise. His perspective on life's meaning(s) carries an overall tone that shadows his self-described personal past, one that emphasizes morality's entwinement with the social and the wonderment of the in-between in all of its strangeness and peculiarity. -- Alison K. McConwell, Quarterly Review of Biology A Meaning to Life engagingly addresses the essential question of meaning in life, and is written by a Aphilosopher of evolutionary biology who has wrestled with this difficult issue throughout his long and distinguished Acareer. AMichael Ruse takes the reader on a personal journey, starting with the ways in which meaning has been viewed by religious and secular thinkers, then turning to how science overturned our understanding of meaning, and finally drawing on Darwinian biology to present a framework for his own position.A While confident in the capacities of science, Ruse humbly ventures his own approach to questions that ultimately lie beyond the reach of science.A This book is a must read as a model of Socratic honesty about meaning in life. -- Michael L. Peterson, Professor of Philosophy, Asbury Theological Seminary, and author of C. S. Lewis and the Christian Worldview Another valuable book from the inimitable Michael Ruse who continues to write about religion and related matters in a way that is intelligent and neither fawning nor condescending. Do not be deceived by the apparent lightness of touch and endless Ruse humor (particularly about warthogs); this is a book with rich insights on almost every page. -- Michael J. Reiss, University College London Thoroughly infused with autobiography, casual erudition, and the characteristic humor of its author, A Meaning to Life gives an account of its title for a world in which the nature of humanity stems not from relations to God or religion, but to evolution. Tracing right and wrong turns in Darwinian conceptions of meaning, its provocative, existentialist proposal demands attention. -- Anjan Chakravartty, University of Miami