Russ Shafer-Landau

Meaning and the Good Life

Shafer-Landau’s IRH project intends to explore the philosophical issues surrounding the good life and the meaning of life. The central questions he will pursue are these: what makes for a good human life? What role does happiness and desire-satisfaction play in human welfare? How should we understand what people are asking about when they inquire about life’s meaning? What are the essential elements in a meaningful life? What are the links between living a good life and a meaningful one?

Russ Shafer-Landau is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His research focuses primarily on the foundations of ethical theory. His publications include Moral Realism: A Defense (Oxford University Press 2003); Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? (Oxford University Press 2004); and The Fundamentals of Ethics (Oxford University Press 2009). He is the editor of the series Oxford Studies in Metaethics, and the editor of The Ethical Life (Oxford University Press 2009), Metaethics: Critical Concepts in Philosophy (Routledge 2008) and Ethical Theory (Blackwell 2007). Shafer-Landau received his B.A. at Brown University, his M.A. at Oxford University, and his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona.