Objective Value Is Not a Necessary Condition in Susan Wolf’s Meaning in Life and Why It Matters

In Susan Wolf’s Meaning in Life and Why It Matters, she makes two claims. First, she proposes “a category or dimension of value” that is “neither subsumable under nor reducible to either happiness or morality.” Second, she argues that “in order for a life to be meaningful both an objective and a subjective condition must be met”: a meaningful life is one in which “the subject finds fulfilling” and which “contributes to or connects positively with something the value of which has its source outside the subject.” However, Wolf does not provide a sufficiently clear definition of the core subject of meaningfulness, nor does she establish logically that objective value is a necessary condition of the object of love. This paper argues that, if the question of meaningfulness concerns how to avoid a lack of meaning and put the relevant concerns to rest, then only what can fill such a lack is a necessary condition of meaningfulness, whereas objective value is not.