50 found
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  1. Immorality and the Meaning of Life.Iddo Landau - 2011 - Journal of Value Inquiry 45 (3):309-317.
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  2. Externalism, internalism, and meaningful lives.Iddo Landau - 2021 - Ratio 34 (2):137-146.
    This paper argues that participants in the subjectivism/objectivism/hybridism debate, a central issue in recent meaning in life research, conflate two different distinctions marked by the terms objective and subjective, one having to do with the question of whether life's meaningfulness depends on factors internal or external to the agent, the other having to do with the question of whether there is any ‘absolute’ as opposed to ‘relative’ truth about the first question. The paper then argues that a distinctive type of (...)
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  3. The Meaning of Life Sub Specie Aeternitatis.Iddo Landau - 2011 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 89 (4):727 - 734.
    Several philosophers have argued that if we examine our lives in context of the cosmos at large, sub specie aeternitatis, we cannot escape life's meaninglessness. To see our lives as meaningful, we have to shun the point of view of the cosmos and consider our lives only in the narrower context of the here and now. I argue that this view is incorrect: life can be seen as meaningful also sub specie aeternitatis. While criticizing arguments by, among others, Simon Blackburn, (...)
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  4.  68
    Competitive Value, Noncompetitive Value, and Life's Meaning.Iddo Landau - forthcoming - Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
    This paper explores the notions of competitive and noncompetitive value and examines how they both affect meaning in life. The paper distinguishes, among other things, between engaging with competitive value and participating in a competition; between competitive value and comparative value; between competing with others and competing with oneself; and between subjective and objective aspects of both competitive and noncompetitive value. Since any competitive value is also comparative value, the paper criticizes Harry Frankfurt’s claim that comparative value is just a (...)
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  5. Is Meaning in Life Constituted by Value or Intelligibility?Iddo Landau - 2021 - Philosophical Papers 50 (1-2):211-234.
    Several authors have recently argued that intelligibility, rather than value, constitutes life’s meaning. In this paper I criticize the intelligibility view by offering examples of cases in which i...
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  6. Benatar on the Badness of All Human Lives.Iddo Landau - 2020 - Philosophia 49 (1):333-345.
    This paper presents a critique of David Benatar’s arguments on the badness of all human lives. I argue that even if Benatar is right that there is an asymmetry between the good and the bad in life so that each “unit” of bad is indeed more effective than each “unit” of good, lives in which there is a lot of good and only little bad are still overall good. Even if there are more unfulfilled than fulfilled desires in life, a (...)
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  7. An argument for marriage.Iddo Landau - 2004 - Philosophy 79 (3):475-481.
    This paper replies to two arguments against marriage presented by Dan Moller (Philosophy 78, 2003: 79–91). One of Moller's arguments examines several ways in which the marriage promise could be explained, and shows that none of them is viable. The other argument suggests that marriage may not be a worthwhile enterprise since marriages frequently fail, in that they become loveless or end up in divorce. I argue that the marriage promise can be explained in a way unconsidered by Moller, which (...)
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  8. Two Arguments for the Badness and Meaninglessness of Life.Iddo Landau - 2020 - Journal of Value Inquiry 54 (3):429-442.
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  9. Sartre’s Absolute Freedom in Being and Nothingness.Iddo Landau - 2012 - Philosophy Today 56 (4):463-473.
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  10. Conceptualizing great meaning in life: Metz on the good, the true, and the beautiful.Iddo Landau - 2013 - Religious Studies 49 (4):505-514.
    This article is a reply to Thaddeus Metz's (2011). I suggest that Metz's theory is too broad since it entails that merely understanding Einstein's or Darwin's views can make a life highly meaningful. Furthermore, it is unclear whether , toward which highly meaningful lives are oriented, may or may not be necessary conditions to , how completely the former should explain the latter, and whether Metz's account is indeed non-consequentialist. While acknowledging the importance of Metz's contribution, I consider alternative directions (...)
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  11.  95
    Violence and Postmodernism: A Conceptual Analysis.Iddo Landau - 2010 - Reason Papers 32:67-73.
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  12. Why has the Question of the Meaning of Life Arisen in the Last Two and a Half Centuries?Iddo Landau - 1997 - Philosophy Today 41 (2):263-269.
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  13. Foundationless Freedom and Meaninglessness of Life in Sartre's: Being and Nothingness.Iddo Landau - 2012 - Sartre Studies International 18 (1):1-8.
    This paper critically examines Sartre's argument for the meaninglessness of life from our foundationless freedom. According to Sartre, our freedom to choose our values is completely undetermined. Hence, we cannot rely on anything when choosing and cannot justify our choices. Thus, our freedom is the foundation of our world without itself having any foundation, and this renders our lives absurd. Sartre's argument presupposes, then, that although we can freely choose all our values we have a meta-value that we cannot choose: (...)
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  14. Metafiction as a Rhetorical Device in Hegel’s History of Absolute Spirit and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude.Iddo Landau - 1992 - Clio 21:401-410.
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  15. Early and Later Deconstruction in the Writings of Jacques Derrida.Iddo Landau - 1993 - Cardozo Law Review 14:1895-1909.
    In this article I claim that distinction should be made between an "early Derrida" and a "later Derrida," similar to the one made between Wittgenstein of the Tractatus and Wittgenstein of the Investigations, or between Heidegger before the Kehre and Heidegger after it. Acceptance of such a distinction enables us to understand Derrida's teachings more clearly, to solve a disagreement in Derrida scholarship, and to understand his deconstruction as less contradictory. I shall also explain the reasons for, and causes of, (...)
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  16. Objectivism, Hybridism, and Meaning in Life: Reply to Evers and van Smeden.Iddo Landau - 2017 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 55 (3):306-313.
    In a recent article in this journal, Daan Evers and Gerlinde Emma van Smeden () defend Wolf's hybridism against objectivist counterexamples advanced by Metz, Smuts, and Bramble. They also offer their own new hybridism, which they take to be even less vulnerable to such counterexamples. In this paper, I argue that Evers and van Smeden's defense of their and Wolf's hybridizing from objectivist counterexamples is problematic and that they do not, in fact, succeed in meeting the challenge the objectivist counterexamples (...)
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  17. Problems with Feminist Standpoint Theory in Science Education.Iddo Landau - 2008 - Science & Education 17:1081-1088.
    Feminist standpoint theory has important implications for science education. The paper focuses on difficulties in standpoint theory, mostly regarding the assumptions that different social positions produce different types of knowledge, and that epistemic advantages that women might enjoy are always effective and significant. I conclude that the difficulties in standpoint theory render it too problematic to accept. Various implications for science education are indicated: we should return to the kind of science education that instructs students to examine whether arguments, experiments, (...)
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  18. Perfectionism and Non-Perfectionism in Camus’s Myth of Sisyphus.Iddo Landau - 2013 - In Beatrix Himmelmann (ed.), On Meaning in Life. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 139-152.
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  19.  90
    חברה, תרבות ופילוסופיה: האם הפילוסופיה היא אנושית או גברית?Iddo Landau - 2008 - 长白学刊 57:407-418.
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  20. On the common claim that one must fulfil one's potential and do one's best to have a meaningful life.Iddo Landau - 2022 - Think 21 (62):55-62.
    The article examines whether fulfilling one's potential and doing one's best are sufficient or necessary conditions for having a meaningful life. It concludes that they are just contributing factors and can sometimes even diminish life's meaning.
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  21. The “Why Be Moral?” Question and the Meaning of Life.Iddo Landau - 2015 - In Beatrix Himmelmann (ed.), Why Be Moral? An Argument from the Human Condition in Response to Hobbes and Nietzsche. pp. 159-172.
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  22. Is Jessie right to end her life?Iddo Landau - 2022 - Philosophical Forum 53 (3):163-174.
    Presupposing that our consideration of ethical issues can be enriched by examining literary works, this paper focuses on Marsha Norman's play ‘night, Mother. The play describes the last hour and a half in the life of Jessie, a young woman who decides to die by suicide. Before ending her life, Jessie explains to her mother her reasons for her suicide. In the context of the play, these are presented as quite weighty and as, perhaps, justifying her decision. Scholarly research on (...)
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  23. Problems in Levinas.Iddo Landau - 2021 - The European Legacy 26 (5):455-465.
    Emmanuel Levinas is one of the most elaborately discussed moral philosophers of recent decades, and his philosophy has many adherents. I believe, however, that the scholarly literature on his work...
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  24. Krishnamurti's Insistence on Pathless Enlightenment: A Critique.Iddo Landau - 2019 - Journal of Indian Philosophy and Religion 24:31-55.
    This paper offers a critique of Krishnamurti’s Truth Is A Pathless Land doctrine, according to which all mystical mystical organizations and all mystical techniques, such as meditation, Koans, and Sufi whirling, obstruct rather than enhance mystical illumination. The paper criticizes both the empirical and the theoretical arguments Krishnamurti presents for this doctrine. It suggests that this doctrine is problematic even on the metaphorical level and that its ramifications confuse means with ends. Further, Krishnamurti's own program does not succeed in attaining (...)
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  25. The Nights of Cabiria as a Camusian Existentialist Text.Iddo Landau - 2012 - Film and Philosophy 16:53-69.
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  26. Should Marital Relations Be Non‐Hierarchical?Iddo Landau - 2012 - Ratio 25 (1):51-67.
    The paper explores an egalitarian norm widely accepted today, which I call the Marital Non‐Hierarchy Standard. According to this standard, marital relationships should be non‐hierarchical; neither partner may be more dominant than the other. The Marital Non‐Hierarchy Standard is exceptional: in almost all associations, including many financial, professional, educational and recreational ones, in almost all spheres of life, some hierarchies, within certain limits, are widely believed to be morally legitimate. I argue that in marital relations, too, some hierarchies should be (...)
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  27. Viktor Frankl on all people’s freedom to find their lives meaningful.Iddo Landau - 2019 - Human Affairs 29 (4):379-386.
    According to Viktor Frankl, although people are not always free to choose the conditions in which they find themselves, they are always free to choose their attitude towards these conditions and, thus, are always free to find their lives meaningful. This basic tenet of Frankl’s theory is also often repeated approvingly in the secondary literature. I argue that the claim is wrong; not all people are free to find their lives meaningful. Counterexamples include people who suffer from severe depression or (...)
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  28. Sexual harassment as "wrongful communication".Iddo Landau - 2003 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 33 (2):225-234.
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  29. Are You Entitled to Affirmative Action?Iddo Landau - 1997 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 11 (2):17-22.
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  30. Neurology, psychology, and the meaning of life: On Thagard's The Brain and the Meaning of Life.Iddo Landau - 2013 - Philosophical Psychology 26 (4):604-618.
    The Brain and the Meaning of Life Paul Thagard Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010 274 pages, ISBN: 9780691142722 (hbk): $29.95 This paper criticizes central arguments in Paul Thagard's The Brain and the Meaning of Life, concluding, contrary to Thagard, that there is very little that we can learn from brain research about the meaning of life. The paper offers a critical review of Thagard's argument against nihilism and his argument that it is love, work, and play, rather than other activities, (...)
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  31. After postmodernism: meaning of life and education.Iddo Landau - 2018 - Educational Philosophy and Theory 50 (14):1539-1540.
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  32. Two Notions of Objectification.Iddo Landau - 2007 - Philosophy Today 51 (3):312-319.
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  33. To kill a mandarin.Iddo Landau - 2005 - Philosophy and Literature 29 (1):89-96.
    IN LE P È R E GO R I O T, Balzac has the main character, Rastignac, ask his friend Bianchon whether he would agree to the killing of a Chinese Mandarin in far-away China if this would yield Bianchon a great fortune. After some joking, Bianchon answers negatively.1 For Rastignac, this thought experiment is connected to a practical dilemma: he is deliberating whether to agree that a man he has never seen, and who has done Rastignac no harm, should (...)
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  34. An Answer of Behalf of Guanilo.Iddo Landau - 1992 - Philosophy and Theology 7 (1):81-96.
    The ontological proof is wrong because it can be used to prove not only the existence of God, but also of imaginary entities such as spirits of stones and trees. etc. It is faulty because it proves too much; it can be used to prove not only the existence of God, but also the existence of a vast number of imaginary entities to the existence of which theists would not like to commit themselves.
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  35. How androcentric is western philosophy?Iddo Landau - 1996 - Philosophical Quarterly 46 (182):48-59.
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  36. Should There Be Separatist Feminist Epistemologies?Iddo Landau - 1994 - The Monist 77 (4):462-471.
    Many questions may be asked about the efforts to construct feminist epistemologies. One such question is whether epistemologies really imply values and practices in any significant way. Another is whether the values and practices most epistemologies are taken to be immersed in are indeed masculine. Yet another is what precisely are the feminist values and practices that feminist epistemologies should involve. A fourth is whether women and men really do think so differently from each other. And a fifth possible question (...)
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  37. On the Marginalization of Feminist Philosophy.Iddo Landau - 2010 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 18 (4):551-568.
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  38.  86
    Smuts, Aaron. Welfare, Meaning and Worth. New York: Routledge, 2018. Pp. 168. $140.00.Iddo Landau - 2018 - Ethics 129 (1):140-144.
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  39. Modernism, Postmodernism and Politics.Iddo Landau - 1995 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 10 (1):39-45.
    Many modernists and postmodernists have adduced moral and political considerations in attacking the views of the other side and defending their own. In the face of the multiplicity of these claims and the ardor with which they are expressed, it is surprising that no attempts have been made to systematically examine the nature and validity of the arguments, nor to ask whether it is useful to engage in them at all. This paper provides such an analysis and demonstrates that in (...)
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  40. Mendus on philosophy and pervasiveness.Iddo Landau - 1997 - Philosophical Quarterly 47 (186):89–93.
    In ‘How Androcentric is Western Philosophy?’ (The Philosophical Quarterly, 46 (1996), pp. 48–59), I criticized five claims for the androcentrism of philosophy. In her ‘How Androcentric is Western Philosophy? A Reply’ (ibid., pp. 60–6), Susan Mendus finds my arguments faulty in a number of ways. Much of her criticism has to do with the distinction introduced in my article between pervasive and non-pervasive androcentrism. Pervasive androcentrism in a philosophical theory calls for substantial reform, complete rejection or replacement by a feminist (...)
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  41. The role of reflexivity in philosophical systems.Iddo Landau - unknown
    An analysis of the nature of reflexivity--a relation which relates a thing to itself although it is regularly used to relate two different things--is followed by specific discussions of its place and functions in the writings of various philosophers. These discussions substantiate the following theses: reflexivity is a basic structure common to different phenomena; although traditionally unacknowledged, it is a useful and important concept in philosophy as well as in other disciplines; acknowledging its existence and understanding its structure deepens our (...)
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  42. What′s Old in Derrida?Iddo Landau - 1994 - Philosophy 69 (269):279-290.
    Revolutions often retain more characteristics of the pre-revolutionary state than their makers like to admit. Characterizing the pre-revolutionary state as bad, and wishing to accentuate the greatness of their doings, revolutionaries like to stress the differences between the previous state of affairs and the new one, and prefer to see the similarities as few and insignificant. They are frequently wrong.1.
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  43. On the definition of sexual harassment.Iddo Landau - 1999 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 77 (2):216 – 223.
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  44. Coherentism, brain science, and the meaning of life: A response to Thagard.Iddo Landau - 2013 - Philosophical Psychology 26 (4):622-624.
    In his ?Nihilism, Skepticism, and Philosophical Method,? Paul Thagard claims that my critique of his The Brain and the Meaning of Life misapprehends his argument. According to Thagard, the critique wrongly assumes that the book offers foundationalist justifications for Thagard's views whereas, in fact, the justifications his book presents are coherentist. In my response, I show that the claim that my critique depends on foundationalist assumptions is ungrounded. Moreover, the appeal to coherentist rather than foundationalist justifications does not salvage Thagard's (...)
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  45. The Paradox of the End.Iddo Landau - 1995 - Philosophy 70 (274):555 - 565.
    We set ourselves ends and strive to achieve them. We hope that their attainment will improve our condition. The closer we get to our goals, the happier we feel. Paradoxically, however, when we finally do achieve them our joy is sometimes diminished. We have a sense of insignificance and emptiness, and we feel that in attaining our goal we have lost the meaningfulness and balance we experienced while we were striving towards it. In some ways, it seems to us, the (...)
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  46.  91
    Is Sexual Harassment Research Biased.Iddo Landau - 1999 - Public Affairs Quarterly 13 (3):241-254.
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  47. Response to Amihud Gilead.Iddo Landau - 2007 - Philosophy and Literature 31 (1):158-161.
    In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Iddo Landau responds:I believe that there is much to learn from Gilead's arguments, and that his paper adds to the understanding of the themes presented in the original discussion. However, in the end I do not think that the claims I made are rebuffed.Gilead should be commended for expanding the discussion of the Mandarin thought experiment (henceforth: Mandarin) from the existentialist context, to which it was limited in my (...)
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  48. Standards, Perspectives, and the Meaning of Life: A Reply to Seachris. [REVIEW]Iddo Landau - 2014 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 17 (3):457-468.
    In a recent article in this journal, Joshua W. Seachris (2012) argues that the distinction I make between perspectives and standards in sub specie aeternitatis arguments for the meaninglessness of life does not hold for a salient component of the sub specie aeternitatis perspective: the ontological-normative component. In this article I suggest that Seachris’s argument is problematic in a number of ways and ought to be rejected.
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  49. The Law of Sexual Harassment: A Critique Mane Hajdin. [REVIEW]Iddo Landau - 2005 - Business Ethics Quarterly 15 (3):531-536.
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  50. Ethics and Sex. [REVIEW]Iddo Landau - 2000 - Social Theory and Practice 26 (3):527-529.
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