Midlife: A Philosophical Guide

Psychological egoism is a conspiracy theory of human motivation, and about as credible.

Think of Count Vronsky, seducing Anna Karenina: “He soon felt that the realization of his longing gave him only one grain of the mountain of bliss he had anticipated. That realization showed him the eternal error men make by imagining that happiness consists in the gratification of their wishes.”13

Relationships can fail; love can be imperfect; it can fade. Philosophy will not change this.

But you can meditate for insight, if not into the no-self view, into the value of the atelic.

You can choose to immerse yourself in things you might come to care about and so begin to change your life.

The chances of falling apart are significantly higher in midlife, even if the majority get by.

What is the value of having options you do not exercise, paths you do not walk?

But it is around midlife that one’s dependence on telic activities is most liable to emerge, as long-sought aims are accomplished or prove impossible.

Schwandt proposed a mathematical model in which experienced life-satisfaction is a function of how well life is going at the time, combined with optimism for the future and disappointment about the present.