Mattering to Others

What is the meaning of life? People have been asking themselves this question for millennia, and yet, in scholarly circles, it is a query that has garnered a questionable reputation: it’s too difficult and subjective, they say, too arbitrary and unserious, but more than anything else: it’s impossible to answer. In this book, at once comprehensive and accessible, philosopher Michael Zichy shows that the opposite is the case. The question of the meaning of life does not just have a personal and existential dimension, it also has an eminently political and social aspect that has previously been ignored. This lends the question a great deal of contemporary relevance and urgency. And it makes it possible to give a clear answer!

In a careful and engaged dialogue with tradition, Zichy elaborates an original approach that does justice to the existential profundity of the question of meaning, highlighting its political significance. In the end, Zichy suggests in his precise and sensitively argued conclusion, life is about mattering to others, for the right reasons and for its own sake. This insight has consequences for our collective life as social beings.

»As philosophically thorough as it is original, a theory of the meaning of life that is at once demanding and practical – and on top of it all, the writing is extremely beautiful and lucid. In this sense, Michael Zichy has produced a book that seems to have come from another era, which makes it all the more important.« Jonas Lüscher

»Philosopher Michael Zichy has a surprisingly simple answer to what might be humanity’s biggest question, and also knows how this can make us healthier and strengthen society.« Süddeutsche Zeitung

»A convincing, brief psychology of belief and an analysis of our  self-imposed pathologising of meaning. The author also manages to break down complex philosophies into just a few lines.« Pascal Moser, NZZ am Sonntag

»What is the meaning of life? Even for many philosophers, this question is considered too big, too subjective. But Michael Zichy shows that we can indeed find an answer.« Deutschlandfunk

»This practical theory of the meaning of life, this variety of altruism and self-love, deserves to be put into practice.« Hilde Naurath, Herder Korrespondenz

»It is a mental pleasure to follow the author in his considerations, which are clearly articulated and also comprehensible for philosophical laypeople.« Stefan von Kempis, Vatikan News