CIENCIASMEDICASNEWS: MercatorNet: Finding the meaning of life in Auschwitz

sábado, 7 de mayo de 2016

MercatorNet: Finding the meaning of life in Auschwitz

First of all, an apology: the newsletter is late. We have been having problems with our server. The site has been down for a while and we could not post. Hopefully everything will be rectified soon.

The famous Harvard philosopher Willard Quine was once asked what the meaning of life was. He responded: “"Life is algid, life is fulgid. Life is what the least of us make most of us feel the least of us make the most of. Life is a burgeoning, a quickening of the dim primordial urge in the murky wastes of time".

In other words, what a stupid,stupid question. I suspect that many people would agree with him, unfortunately. The British comedy team Monty Python called one of their irreverent films The Meaning of Life, which implied that the question was stupid and all answers were absurd.

I suspect that Viktor Frankl, the Holocaust survivor and psychologist, would have regarded these responses as not just daft but dangerous. Without meaning in their lives, people die; he saw it happen before him many times. Frankl has an important message for our era. Taking advantage of a couple of anniversaries, two of our stories below will give you a taste of his inspiring ideas.