Personal Meaning

Richard Prust is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at St. Andrews University. He is coauthor, with Jeffery Geller, of Personal Identity in Moral and Legal Reasoning.

"Personal Meaning is an example of what an essay in American philosophy should be. It centers not on 'the problems of philosophers' but squarely on 'the problems of men,' in John Dewey's language, and it addresses some of the most common and heartfelt problems of the latter sort. Yet it also trenchantly and with clarity engages the problems of philosophers when they factor into basic human problems, and it is informed by a variety of work outside the field. Further, although Prust writes in the vein of classical American philosophers, he does not simply rehash what they have said or argue, in the typical fashion, that they have not received their due. Rather, in plain, readable, yet elegant, prose, he offers original thoughts that improve on theirs in a way that carries on the projects they began—most notably, the project of crafting a commonsensical philosophy of life. If he is correct, for example, about why the imperative to self-actualize is in harmony with moral imperatives, he has solved a big practical problem that no one else in American philosophy has adequately addressed." — Mason Marshall, Pepperdine University

• Acknowledgments Introduction1. Individual Meaning 2. Relational Significance 3. Relative Importance 4. Emotional Force 5. Moral Value 6. The Meaning of Life Glossary Notes Bibliography Index