The Search for Meaning: A Short History

by Dennis Ford

Book Overview

In The Search for Meaning: A Short History, Dennis Ford explores eight approaches human beings have pursued over time to invest life with meaning and to infuse order into a seemingly chaotic universe.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520253000
• ISBN13: 9780520253001
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An Original and Valuable Contribution

In this book, Ford examines eight different perspectives and their implications for embracing, discovering, and/or creating meaning in human life. Many other possible perspectives weren't considered, but that's understandable since an exhaustive survey would make for a very long and probably overwhelming book. Moreover, Ford has chosen his eight perspectives well, and the way he has compared and woven them together historically and conceptually represents an original and valuable contribution. While some might consider this book to be introductory, I found it plenty challenging, despite being fairly well read and having myself thought about these questions quite a bit over the past couple of decades. In fact, I'll probably need to eventually read this book again. Part of the challenge is surely the inherent difficulty (intractability?) of meaning questions. But I think Ford's writing style is also a factor. Although he's not stuffy or pretentious, he consistently stays at a fairly high and dense level, without interludes to simplify and summarize key points. He also has a tendency to repeat the same point many times in different ways, and I often found this to cause more confusion than clarity. So the writing style is an aspect in which the book could have been better. Overall though, again, this book is an original and valuable contribution, so I recommend it to anyone seriously interested in (or bewitched by) this fundamental topic. In the end, Ford doesn't offer a final "answer," but I no longer expect that from any author. Instead, he offers perspectives and insights which can help one continue forward with the search for meaning and, perhaps better yet, maybe even find an acceptable exit from the search (a return to innocence without naivete).

Cutting Through Complexity

In these postmodern times so punctuated with irony, a book entitled The Search for Meaning: A Short History is as likely as not to be a lampoon of the very idea of finding meaning in our crazy world. But this modest and remarkably lucid book by Dennis Ford is decidedly not a joke. As Ford realizes, human beings need an overarching context or system of meaning-making to make sense of the fragility and uncertainty of life. In his "short history," he elegantly articulates the fundamentals of eight paradigms by which we have grasped reality and our place in it. Ford's goal is not to answer the question, "What is the meaning of life?" but is instead to focus on how human beings have made meaning. Cutting through the bewildering complexity of the myriad ways humanity has taken up this task, he divides the field into "classical" and contemporary sources of meaning, and sees the latter as blending aspects of the classical approaches in light of postmodernity's nihilism. Presenting each with balance and appreciation for its relative strengths and weaknesses, Ford's distinctions are often surprising, but they arise from his intent to create an admittedly simplified taxonomy of the ways that human beings relate to, and discover, purpose. While understanding how we make meaning is still quite mysterious, Ford succeeds admirably in delineating the ways that have thus far been made available.

NOT JUST FOR BEGINNERS

To be honest, I have not quite finished this book, but as a person who has been reading about meaning and belief for the past 15 years, I would like to say that this is not just for beginners. Yes, it provides a wonderful framework for those just starting to explore the field of meaning and belief and all the religious, psychological and philosophical underpinnings those viewpoints depend on. But it's also wonderful review for the longtime student. The field is so wide and deep that sometimes ideas fall out of awareness or get lost in the shuffle, and this book brings them back to mind. Perhaps if I were a brilliant person with a iron-trap memory, this book would be superfluous; since I am just an ordinary person -- with an extraordinary interest in the philosophy and psychology of belief -- I find it quite enjoyable. (Some of my efforts to understand belief have been documented on my Web site called "Rumors of Order" at fobes.net)

Illuminating and Revealing

The Biblical archetype of Eden and the fall from Paradise tells the story of meaning in our lives. We once lived unselfconsciously in a way in which the question of meaning never arose. In the course of our lives the world has tightened its grasp around our necks, and we have fallen from the garden; the world is no longer as we had naievely envisioned it to be, and we are self-conscious and alienated - separated from the world we once took such enjoyment in. We are now searching to get back into the garden, to reclaim our original seat in Paradise. The Search For Meaning magnificently fleshes out the many ways that man has sought to infuse his life with meaning and purpose and regain his original state of harmony. In all, eight traditional ways of seeking (and creating) a meaningful life are explored and explained: myth, philosophy (Plato), science (Aristotle and the resulting modernist movement), postmodernism, pragmatism (William James), archetypal psychology, metaphysics, and naturalism. Ford explicates each view on its own ground, so to speak, and concludes each chapter by asking (and investigating) four basic questions: What do we know? How do we know? What does ______ emphasize and what does it neglect? What does ______ have to say about meaning? Huston Smith, a renowned scholar whom Ford references, said about The Search For Meaning, "This book weaves a tapestry so encompassing, so intriguingly beautiful, I am stunned by its accomplishment." So one would advise not to be falsely persuaded by negative opinions. To take a harsh and negative attitude towards anything obviously blinds one to the usefulness and benefit of what one is speaking of. One of our most fundamental oversights is that we are so quick to label things as good or bad, without looking into them very deeply. To speak in terms of good and bad fails see the relevancy of the subject's purpose. As stated in the title, it is a short history - so obviously it will lack the depth of a book examining any one topic or idea. For example, Ford touches on Aristotle's contributions to science and the modern worldview, but fails to investigate Aristotle's own conception of the purpose of human existence (eudaimonia, literally "the good life"). Yet, an investigation into the significance of Aristotle's theory would be of a length and content unsuitable to a `short history' - Ford must over-generalize and omit certain details. Such an intention should not be seen as a fault, as the synthesis of these topics as they relate to the most basic of all human questions can be very personally (and culturally) revealing as well as intellectually stimulating. If one is well versed in the literature Ford considers, much of this book may be a review. However, if one is just beginning to investigate into the meaning of life and how it has been dealt with throughout history, the value of this book will be immense. Even if one is well read, the simplicity of the author's outlo