Is Life Worth Living?
E661612
"Is Life Worth Living?" is an essay by philosopher and psychologist William James that explores the practical and emotional grounds for affirming life’s value despite doubt and suffering.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Is Life Worth Living? canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7410854 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Is Life Worth Living? Context triple: [The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy, hasEssay, Is Life Worth Living?]
-
A.
How Should We Then Live?
"How Should We Then Live?" is a 1976 book by Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer that critiques Western culture and traces the impact of philosophical and religious ideas on the course of history.
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B.
Rethinking Life and Death
Rethinking Life and Death is a philosophical book by ethicist Peter Singer that challenges traditional moral views on issues such as euthanasia, abortion, and the value of human life in light of modern medical technology.
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C.
The Ends of Human Life
"The Ends of Human Life" is a bioethics book by Ezekiel Emanuel that examines philosophical, medical, and policy questions surrounding end-of-life decision-making and the definition of death.
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D.
What Is Life?
"What Is Life?" is a landmark 1944 scientific book by physicist Erwin Schrödinger that explores the physical and molecular basis of living systems and helped inspire the development of molecular biology.
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E.
What Is Life?
*What Is Life?* is a book by biologist Lynn Margulis that explores the nature of living systems through the lens of evolution, symbiosis, and Earth’s biosphere.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Is Life Worth Living? Target entity description: "Is Life Worth Living?" is an essay by philosopher and psychologist William James that explores the practical and emotional grounds for affirming life’s value despite doubt and suffering.
-
A.
How Should We Then Live?
"How Should We Then Live?" is a 1976 book by Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer that critiques Western culture and traces the impact of philosophical and religious ideas on the course of history.
-
B.
Rethinking Life and Death
Rethinking Life and Death is a philosophical book by ethicist Peter Singer that challenges traditional moral views on issues such as euthanasia, abortion, and the value of human life in light of modern medical technology.
-
C.
The Ends of Human Life
"The Ends of Human Life" is a bioethics book by Ezekiel Emanuel that examines philosophical, medical, and policy questions surrounding end-of-life decision-making and the definition of death.
-
D.
What Is Life?
"What Is Life?" is a landmark 1944 scientific book by physicist Erwin Schrödinger that explores the physical and molecular basis of living systems and helped inspire the development of molecular biology.
-
E.
What Is Life?
*What Is Life?* is a book by biologist Lynn Margulis that explores the nature of living systems through the lens of evolution, symbiosis, and Earth’s biosphere.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
philosophical essay
ⓘ
work by William James ⓘ |
| addressesAudience | general educated readers ⓘ |
| addressesQuestion | Is life worth living? ⓘ |
| argues |
Practical and emotional grounds can justify affirming life
ⓘ
The decision to live involves an act of faith ⓘ |
| asks | how one can rationally and emotionally affirm life ⓘ |
| author | William James NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| centralClaim | Life’s worth cannot be proven theoretically but can be validated in practice ⓘ |
| concerns |
human response to suffering
ⓘ
motivation to continue living ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| discipline |
philosophy of life
ⓘ
psychology ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
the importance of lived experience
ⓘ
the possibility of hope amid suffering ⓘ the role of personal commitment ⓘ |
| explores |
emotional grounds for affirming life
ⓘ
practical consequences of choosing to live ⓘ tension between skepticism and faith ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
individual experience
ⓘ
personal struggle with despair ⓘ |
| genre |
philosophy
ⓘ
pragmatism ⓘ |
| influenced | later discussions of the meaning of life in American philosophy ⓘ |
| influencedBy | pragmatic theory of truth ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
doubt and suffering
ⓘ
faith and hope ⓘ meaning of life ⓘ practical justification for living ⓘ value of life ⓘ |
| philosophicalApproach | pragmatic evaluation of beliefs by their consequences ⓘ |
| philosophicalIssue |
existential doubt
ⓘ
optimism ⓘ pessimism ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | American pragmatism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| proposesView | Life can be affirmed as worth living despite doubt and suffering ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
The Will to Believe
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Varieties of Religious Experience NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| tone |
existentially serious
ⓘ
practical ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Is Life Worth Living? Description of subject: "Is Life Worth Living?" is an essay by philosopher and psychologist William James that explores the practical and emotional grounds for affirming life’s value despite doubt and suffering.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.