Abstract
How might one’s authentic relation to oneself be connected to the question of the meaning of one’s life? My intuition is that there is a particularly useful causal and constitutive relation between connecting with one’s true self and living a meaningful life. The central argument of this dissertation is that obtaining the meaning of life is the fundamental goal of our lives, and this, I argue, is achieved through authentic self-realization. Explained briefly, authentic self-realization refers to one’s attunement to, or being in harmony with, one’s true self. Authenticity, here, refers to one’s proper understanding of the true nature of the self and self-realization is the proper orientation towards this basic truth. In contrast to meaning in life, I am concerned with the concept of the meaning of life. I explore the notion of the fundamental property or condition according to which life might be meaningful. I propose that authentic self-realization is the kind of thing that, theoretically, talk of “meaning” denotes. Hence, I argue that realising one’s true self is what it means to obtain the meaning of life. In other words, I propose a plausible theory of the meaning of life where authentic self-realization is the final end that the quest for life’s meaning pursues.