What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life

What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life by Julian Baggini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was the very first philosophy book I'd ever read. It's a challenge for me to rate it, both because I have no other books of its kind to use as comparison, and because much of my positive experience with the book came from reading it with my husband, and the lively discussions it spurred.

The book worked well as an introduction to philosophy because it led with an exciting and fascinating question, then approached the answer by using reasoning techniques and explaining the techniques as we went. To illustrate points Baggini used a healthy mix of commonplace references that held meaning for me, and quotes or core ideas from other philosophers. So the book served as a very gentle introduction to influential philosophers, as well.

This book got me truly excited about a subject that previously held no interest for me. Four stars for explaining what philosophy is (and the meaning of life, too!), and one star of excellence held back for that amazingly awesome philosophy book I hope to read in the future.



View all my reviews

Who is Dagny Taggart?: a love story

It took me a long time to read Atlas Shrugged- no surprise, since Wikipedia counts it at 645,000 words. It also took awhile for me to shake out of the polarized morality of Ayn Rand's world and get a grip on what I'd read.

Atlas Shrugged is a romance novel. Set aside what you've heard about Rand's philosophical masterpiece and look at the protagonist's path. Our beautiful young heroine, Dagny Taggart, is torn between her ardent lovers. All three men want her desperately. But when Dagny first encounters the man of her dreams, she swoons, and he holds her in his arms and gently carries her to his bed.

The difference between Atlas Shrugged and the typical Harlequin romance, is that Dagney runs a railroad. Dagney's profession isn't just a way to get our heroine into a demure gray suit that she sheds to show her stunning sexuality in a black party dress (although that does happen). And her profession is not meant to later attest to what's "really important" to her (ie., her femininity and role as a lover and wife). In fact, Dagney's profession is so intrinsically bound to her personality, her character, her essence, that Dagney is her profession. What's more, the men who fall at her feet, one by one, are in love with her precisely because she embodies the spirit of competence and professionalism.

Turns out Dagney embodies one more important ideal, the ideal beyond Objectivism that lies at the heart of the book: Dagney represents the potential of the individual to love herself.

The magic of Atlas Shrugged is the fact that Rand was able to embody her ideal in her main character, and at the same time, make that protagonist so human, so real, so worthy of the reader's understanding and compassion. Dagney's journey is the journey of coming to embrace the ideal of self-love, and at the same time, she has always been the ideal. It's beautiful and skillful writing.

Unfortunately, as Rand builds to the climax of the novel, she devolves into droning, boring exposition, in which Galt gives a speech to extemporize Rand's philosophy (Wikipedia counts this dreadful speech at 56 pages long, and though Wikipedia mentioned Atlas Shrugged is one of the longest novels ever written, it fails to mention this is one of the longest chunks of exposition anyone has ever been forced to read). Rand's attempt to explain her philosophy in prose deadens the innate feeling of "rightness" she had cultivated in the reader by simply following Dagney's journey. This made the ending of the book resonate a bit less for me. But the self-discovery journey in which Dagney learns what she is truly worth, learns that she is Love, was intense and captivating.