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Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead Us to a More Meaningful Life by Massimo Pigliucci

Science provides us with a perspective on the world, not with a God’s-eye view of things. It gives us an irreducibly human, and therefore to some extent subjective—yet certainly not arbitrary—view of the universe.

Massimo Pigliucci

I enjoyed Pigliucci’s piece on “how science and philosophy lead us to a more meaningful life” as a welcome counterattack against the rampant abuse of the psychology of positive thinking we find in the self-help books and guides of today.

If you approach the text with an open mind, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the new perspective you can gain from his secular, science-based and arguably atheistic interpretation on the meaning of life. You may not agree with Massimo, but that’s okay. What he offers you is an acceptable, logic-based approach to defining the human condition and its search for ethical and moral reason as an innately human endeavor.

Overall, it’s worth the trouble you’ll tackle with some Greek language, semantic reclassifications and academic word choice that always leaves me a little exhausted. It’s still a keeper for my bookshelf.

Full disclosure—if you don’t care for religious criticism you’re not going to like the final chapters. My suggestion is to read this, like you should any book, as a means to learn more about those who don’t share your same views.

Finally, if you’re a fan of philosophy, logic, Stoicism and science as honorable pursuits in the development of character and purpose, add this to your reading list.