The chapter focuses on the modern history and character of the problem of the meaning of life and on why it was not posed explicitly in premodern times. It argues for the legitimacy of the modern problem and analyzes its terms: absurdity, meaning, and nihilism.

The chapter explores the biblical and Jewish concept of redemption, weighing the significance and meaning of human agency in achieving an ultimate amelioration of the human condition. It compares this Jewish valuation of agency with philosophical nihilism, which voids agency of value and hence of the possibility of real meaning.

The conclusion underscores the ineluctable dimension of value – and hence of the possibility of meaning – in all aspects of human knowing and doing. It argues against ceding to much authority to the “view from nowhere,” thereby rescuing the human world of ethical life from meaninglessness.

The Introduction analyzes the problem of how meaning in life can be lost using the examples of Tolstoy and Ecclesiastes. It studies how the Jewish tradition has grappled with the absurdist teaching of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) over the centuries.

The chapter explores the biblical and Jewish concept of revelation as a ground for normative guidance and finds a paradox at the heart of the concept. It goes on to compare the paradox over normativity with contemporary secular philosophy’s discrepant approaches to whether meaning in life is subjectively or objectively grounded.

The chapter explores the biblical and Jewish concept of creation as a fusion of fact and value, underwriting a kind of Jewish-philosophical naturalism. It goes on to compare this to the science-based naturalism of contemporary secular philosophy and asks whether either view offers a sufficient basis for the meaning of life.