How to Read Ecclesiastes: Absurdity, Futility, and the Simple Value of Life / Jesse Peterson
About this episode
Jesse Peterson discusses the themes of absurdity and value in Ecclesiastes, exploring the distinction between meaning and enjoyment in life.
The book of Ecclesiastes has puzzled readers for millennia with its unflinching observations about absurdity, meaninglessness, vanity, and futility. Biblical scholar Jesse Peterson joins Evan Rosa to discuss his book, *Qoheleth and the Philosophy of Value*, bringing contemporary philosophy into dialogue with this ancient text and reflecting on what happens when a sage confronts the gap between expectation and reality. "Can you view your work, your toil, not just as a means to a further end? Can you rather turn to simply enjoy the work itself?" Together they discuss the distinction between meaning and value, why Qoheleth denies lasting significance while affirming joy, the harm of death and the death of memory, Ecclesiastes and Camus's absurdism, and the book's surprising message about enjoyment as an intrinsic good. Episode Highlights "I think what's at the heart of the Book of Ecclesiastes is just to say, maybe not, maybe there isn't a direct line between what you do and what the result will be." "It's not just that you'll physically die, but meaning that you've accrued in your life, if there was such a thing, that dies with you." "In this moment of working on what I'm working…
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