[MD] Free Will

[Steven Peterson]

On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 1:50 AM,  <craigerb at comcast.net> wrote:
> [dmb]
>> To ask about the "meaning" of life in the first sense is to ask for the definition of the term "life".
>> To ask about the "meaning" of life in the second sense is to ask about the nature of human existence.
>
> It's not just the word 'meaning' that has 2 senses in the above, but also the word 'life'.
> The use/mention distinction is fundamental to philosophy, e.g.:
> Life has 4 stages.
> 'Life' has 4 letters.


Right, and obviously I wasn't referring to the meaning of the word
"life." I was discussing the meaning of life. In pragmatic terms,
"what does life mean?" cashes out to "how is life used?" Obviously
life is used in lots of ways. Some good and some bad. The intent of
someone asking the original question is then likely more clearly
stated as "how ought life be used so as to be a good life?" That is,
unless someone presupposes that life has some externally imposed
purpose in which case the question amounts to "why was life created?",
but that is a question that anyone who does not believe in a great
nonhuman power with intents and purposes does not have.