The Meaning of Things

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The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life is a 200 page book by A. C. Grayling first published in 2001. Written without footnotes with the intention to popularize philosophical reasoning, it consists of short essays on a variety of subjects which, although deeply rooted in philosophy, are everyday phenomena encountered, recognized, and understood by everyone.

[edit] Contents

Part I: "Virtues and Attributes"

Moralising — Tolerance — Mercy — Civility — Compromise — Fear — Courage — Defeat — Sorrow — Death — Hope — Perseverance — Prudence — Frankness — Lying — Perjury — Betrayal — Loyalty — Blame — Punishment — Delusion — Love — Happiness —

Part II: "Foes and Fallacies"

Nationalism — Racism — Speciesism — Hate — Revenge — Intemperance — Depression — Christianity — Sin — Repentance — Faith — Miracles — Prophecy — Virginity — Paganism — Blasphemy — Obscenity — Poverty — Capitalism

Part III: "Amenities and Goods"

Reason — Education — Excellence — Ambition — Acting — Art — Health — Leisure — Pace — Reading — Memory — History — Leadership — Travel — Privacy — Family — Age — Gifts — Trifles

[edit] Quotations

Defeat is always an opportunity, even when, as far too often happens, what is genuinely the better cause has been crushed by the worse. [...] But nothing happens without a lesson to offer, or without opening other routes into the future.

Hatred [...] is dislike and antipathy inflamed to a high degree and inspired by beliefs which stimulate a set of other emotions in the hater, chief among them fear, ignorance, jealousy, anger and disgust. But note that all these emotions, and especially the first three, are about the hater; thus hating says more about haters than what they hate. It shows weakness, for it is a crude emotion which turns fears and anxieties outward to fix them on something else.

What underlies talk of virginity is a profound and often hidden moral angst about purity and pollution—and therefore also sentiments of temptation and desire. If our religions had decided that ears or wisdom teeth were spiritually significant, we should feel the same anxieties regarding them as with the hymen; and moral concern would be devoted to them instead.