Sublime

The distinction we have drawn from Aristotle and Mill has been neglected in moral philosophy. We need a term for what is not-just-ameliorative. Since it makes life positively good, not merely better than it could be, and so explains why life is worth living at all, I call such value “existential.”

It will clearly make sense for us to spend time and energy setting goals for ourselves and determining our values. Doing this will take relatively little time and energy. Furthermore, the reward for choosing our goals and values properly can be enormous. Indeed, Marcus thinks the key to having a good life is to value things that are genuinely valua

In the Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest philosopher of the Enlightenment, insists that the “whole interest of . . . reason, whether speculative or practical,” is encapsulated in three questions: “What can I know?”, “What should I do?”, and “What may I hope?”

Taking a walk in the countryside, like listening to a favorite song or meeting friends for an evening of conversation, is thus a good example of what the philosopher Kieran Setiya calls an “atelic activity,” meaning that its value isn’t derived from its telos, or ultimate aim. You shouldn’t be aiming to get a walk “done”; nor are you likely to reac