Meanings of Life

Rating:
Summary: Accessible and Informative
Review: I found this book at a local university bookstore for medical students, being used as a primary text for its psychiatric core curriucla. I can see easily why it was chosen. It is written with academic rigor based in the social sciences but often reads like a self-help book. In a critical way, it is both. As a textbook, it reads with vigor and analycity of the behavioral sciences and analytic philosophy, and as a self-help book, it reads like a serious, intelligent discussion of the scientific bases for meanings in one's life.

The book is clearly interdisciplinary, and is suitable for college-level coursework in the fields of philosophy, pyschology, and sociology. The author begins by forming four existential criteria for evaluating the meanings of life (note the plurality): (1) Purpose, (2) Value, (3) Efficacy (or Control), and (4) Self Worth. Based on these logical and practical foundations, Baumeister analyzes a plethora of life events and enculturation: Work, Family, Religion, Sex, Love, Happiness, Death, and many varients on these central themes. The book's singular achievement is the revelation or apotheosis of the "self" as a modern predicament vis-a-vis its historical antecedents.

It succeeds in formulating a high-level of discussion without ambiguity or confusion; it is remarkable for its clarity. The average page contains about seven references to other authorities that provide simultaneously the careful research that has been undertaken to provide this comprehensive overview, while offering the student/reader the resources to pursue additional tangents on their own. The bibliography is better than average, omitting some significant contributors I would have liked to have seen interwoven into the over-arching examination. My largest reservation to recommendation of this book is the total absence of evolutionary consideration from any of the various venues. The absence of instinct and environment mar the book seriously.

This book should appeal to almost anyone who has an above-average intelligence, the ability to think critically, and an interest in rational discourse concerning the meanings we import and export in our lives. This book is not only designed for academia and the above-average cognocenti, but for businesses and other organizations to understand the dynamics and praxeology in today's culture vis-a-vis our inheritance. As one who read it for pleasure, I found myself taking copious notes and underlining numerous passages. The text engenders a close reading as necessary.

Rating:
Summary: Revealing and Thought Provoking
Review: Read this book for a tutorial class called "Construction and Maintenance of the Self". Baumeister conveys his theoritical perspective on the meaning of the self (and its implications on the meanings of life)in a highly accessible and convincing manner. He argues from the perspective that the self is a social construct and that in the West, the meanings that have been put into the construction and maintenance of this self have created a burden on the individual. The stress associated with maintaining this concept of self can be used to explain why people engage in behaviors such as alcholism and sado-masochism. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are interested in concepts of the self and its relation to (what Baumeister would not consider) self-disruptive behaviors.