Setiya finds that another 19th-century philosopher, the German Arthur Schopenhauer, described the midlife predicament in an illuminating way. Pursuing goals, as Mill was raised to do, is what makes our lives meaningful. But, Schopenhauer argued, in pursuing and achieving them, paradoxically, our ‘days are devoted to ending, one by one, the activities that give them meaning.’ In other words, we’re always finishing the very projects that endow our lives with 'existential value.’ It’s this self-destructive logic that provides the midlife crisis with its distinctive flavor and peculiar sense of emptiness.
Jonathan Derbyshire, “Think Your Way Through Middle Age,” a review of three books, including Kieran Setiya’s Midlife, Princeton, 2017, Financial Times, 25-26 November 2017, “Life & Arts” section.
