Meaning of Life – Variations of InterconnectednessMathias Risse

19 June 2025

Mathias Risse (Harvard University), 17:15 - 18:45, presents his project in the Interdisciplinary Research Seminar of the GRK "Collective Decision-Making”.

Location: Room 0079, Von-Melle-Park 5

Abstract

Mathias Risse’s book-in-progress Learning from Indigenous Philosophy: Towards a Renewed Engagement in Times of Technological Disruption and Ecological Devastation seeks to build bridges between contemporary Western philosophy and Indigenous philosophy, a rich source of topics in light of the major crises of the 21st century. Chapter 10 is about meaning of life. It compares Robert Nozick’s account (a quintessential piece of contemporary analytical philosophy) with approaches from two Native American authors, Wub-e-ke-niew and Lame Deer. These approaches have certain interesting overlaps (focused on the theme of interconnectedness), but Nozick makes the notion of choice central to his approach, and there’s little room for choice in the work of these two Indigenous authors.

Find the abstract as PDF here.