Narrative and Meaning in Life

Many theorists have argued that the meaningfulness of a life is related in some way to the narrative or story that can be told about that life. Relationists claim that a life gains in meaning when a particular set of “narrative relations” obtain between the events that constitute it. Recountists cla...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bres, Helena de (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2018
In: Journal of moral philosophy
Year: 2018, Volume: 15, Issue: 5, Pages: 545-571
Further subjects:B Meaningfulness
B Narrative
B Storytelling
B Life
B Stories
B Meaning
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Summary:Many theorists have argued that the meaningfulness of a life is related in some way to the narrative or story that can be told about that life. Relationists claim that a life gains in meaning when a particular set of “narrative relations” obtain between the events that constitute it. Recountists claim that it is the telling of a story about those relations, not the relations themselves, that confers meaning. After identifying problems with existing versions of both of these positions, this paper introduces a new and more satisfying variant of Recountism, centered on the old-fashioned idea that a meaningful life is, in part, an intelligible one. I argue that personal narration does play a role in a meaningful life and that my “Fitting Story” account provides the best explanation of how and why that is so.
ISSN:1745-5243
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of moral philosophy
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/17455243-20170008