作者

特里•伊格尔顿　英国曼彻斯特大学“约翰•爱德华•泰勒”英语教授，英国社会科学院院士。近年出版的著作包括：《神圣的恐怖》（2005）、《英国小说导论》（2004）、《理论之后》（2003）、《温柔的暴力：悲剧的观念》（2002）、《文化的观念》（2000）、《后现代主义的幻象》（1996）、《文学理论导论》（1996年第2版、1983年第1版）等。

序言作者

邓晓芒　华中科技大学哲学系教授，德国哲学研究中心主任。专攻德国哲学，亦研究美学、文化心理学、中西文化比较等。著有《思辨的张力——黑格尔辩证法新探》、《康德〈纯粹理性批判〉句读》、《冥河的摆渡者——康德〈判断力批判〉导读》、《灵之舞——中西人格的表演性》、《人之镜——中西文学形象的人格结构》、《灵魂之旅——九十年代文学的生存意境》等，译有康德三大批判（杨祖陶校）等。

'Philosophers have an infuriating habit of analysing questions rather than answering them', writes Terry Eagleton, who, in these pages, asks the most important question any of us ever ask, and attempts to answer it. So what is the meaning of life? In this witty, spirited, and stimulating inquiry, Eagleton shows how centuries of thinkers - from Shakespeare and Schopenhauer to Marx, Sartre and Beckett - have tackled the question. Refusing to settle for the bland and boring, Eagleton reveals with a mixture of humour and intellectual rigour how the question has become particularly problematic in modern times. Instead of addressing it head-on, we take refuge from the feelings of 'meaninglessness' in our lives by filling them with a multitude of different things: from football and sex, to New Age religions and fundamentalism. 'Many of the readers of this book are likely to be as sceptical of the phrase "the meaning of life" as they are of Santa Claus', he writes. But Eagleton contends that in a world where we need to find common meanings, it is important that we set about answering the question of all questions; and, in conclusion, he suggests his own answer.