USD Philosopher Joseph Tinguely Awarded John Templeton Foundation Grant
The project is titled “The Meaning Project: The Emergence and Disappearance of a Question.” Tinguely, a professor of the University of South Dakota’s philosophy program, describes The Meaning Project as “the first cross-disciplinary collaboration of its kind to examine the preconditions of the question of the meaning of life.”
He and his Co-Principal Investigator, Justin Smith-Ruiu, Ph.D., a philosopher at the Paris Cité University, are interested in the classic philosophical question “what is the meaning of life?” but they don’t intend to answer it. They will explore when and where the question emerges, including when it gains urgency, its relationship to political-economic conditions, and what it means to make meaning in the modern world. Tinguely intends to demonstrate “that the context of the question of life’s meaning is inseparable from the content of the answers.”
Throughout this project, researchers of philosophy, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and the history of ideas will work across disciplinary lines to identify the social, cultural, psychological, historical, political-economic, or linguistic predeterminants of the search for meaning. The research will conclude in the publication of a printed volume.
While reflecting on the project, Tinguely’s meditations are married with a sense of humor. The Meaning Project invites questions about an often-misunderstood field, philosophy, and the human issues behind it.
“It is a very strange social experience having to admit publicly that one is a philosopher,” Tinguely said. “It is a fact best avoided if at all possible, given that it brings on stares of incomprehension from friends, colleagues and strangers seated next to you on a plane. The questions that philosophers claim that, as a matter of course, are the most important concern (‘the meaning of life’) to all appearances are the least concern to normal, well-adjusted people. At some point it’s bound to occur to you that maybe students and other normal people are right, and philosophers are wrong. That kind of worry opened to a larger question of what we know about the core questions that define the humanities in general: How did these questions come to seem pressing in the first place? And if they are so important, how is it possible that they have fallen so far out of fashion that they are most likely to appear at the butt-end of a joke?”
Daniel Engebretson, Ph.D., vice president of research and sponsored programs at USD, said in a letter of support for the grant: “The College of Arts & Sciences strives to offer a world-class education in the liberal arts and sciences, to create and disseminate knowledge and to serve the people of South Dakota, the nation and the world. Through outstanding teaching and mentorship, cutting-edge research, creative scholarship and committed service and engagement, the College of Arts & Sciences educates and graduates the leaders who will solve the future’s most pressing challenges. The overall goal of Prof. Tinguely’s proposal serves as a valuable example of what it means to be a champion of our liberal arts mission.”
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