In Search of Perspective: Notes on Freedom, Transcendence, and Finitude in Tartaglia's "Philosophy in a Meaningless Life."

Abstract

This paper suggests that a main concern of James Tartaglia’s Philosophy in a Meaningless Life is human freedom, and the ways in which it may be served (and hampered) by philosophy. Initial remarks about freedom and nihilism are followed (in Section II) by brief methodological considerations. Section III offers a reading of the idea of transcendence as Tartaglia deploys it, while Section IV makes use of a comparison with Richard Rorty’s understanding of the relation between philosophy and freedom in order to locate what is distinctive about Tartaglia’s approach. Finally, in Section V, it is suggested that freedom, in Tartaglia’s system of nihilism, is essentially a feature of finitude.