Todd May.
A Significant Life: human meaning in a silent universe.
University of Chicago Press. 2015
What makes for a good life, or a beautiful one, or,
perhaps most important, a meaningful one?
Throughout history most of us have looked to our faith,
our relationships, or our deeds for the answer.
But in A Significant Life, philosopher Todd May
offers an exhilarating new way of thinking about these questions.
He looks at the fundamental fact that life unfolds over time
and that, as it does so, it can be marked by guiding narrative values
such as intensity, curiosity, perseverance, or many other qualities.
Offering a fascinating examination of a broad range of figures—from
music icon Jimi Hendrix to civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer,
from cyclist Lance Armstrong to
The Portrait of a Lady’s Ralph Touchett—May
shows that narrative values offer a rich variety of criteria
by which to assess a life, specific to each of us and yet widely available.