Associate professor of philosophy Karen Bennett led listeners at her public program March 30 in Manhattan to explore the things that might make our lives meaningful, while providing insight into her discipline.

At her presentation, "What's It All About? How Philosophers Think About the Meaning of Life," at the 92nd Street Y community center, Bennett outlined some of the different approaches that could be taken in articulating the question.

"It's kind of tricky," she said in an interview. " 'What's the meaning of life?' is not the same as the question, 'How can I be happy?' And it's not the same as the question, 'Why shouldn't I kill myself right now?'"

Bennett discussed three different answers to the question, "what's the meaning of life?" The first was a religious answer that appealed to the existence of a deity with a plan. The second answer was that we should pursue objectively valuable goals.

The third answer dismissed the idea of objective value, and instead suggested that we should each find our own goals; we should simply do what subjectively strikes us as valuable.

She challenged all three answers and suggested that perhaps we can make progress by reflecting upon the role the question plays in our lives.

"It's important that we're the only kind of creature who asks this question at all," she said.

Among philosophers, considering questions about a meaningful life happens less frequently than one might think, Bennett said.

Her presentation was intended for a general audience, as "a good introduction to how philosophers think about things," she said. "People are often very misled about what philosophers do. ... [They] have that whole image of a guru sitting on a mountaintop dispensing the meaning of life. And that's not what philosophers do at all."

Bennett notes that people in her profession tend to focus on narrow, often arcane questions that would baffle non-philosophers. In her work, she said, Bennett examines the nature of objects, causation and the mind-body problem, among other things.

She said that everyone thinks of philosophical questions every day, such as: Is there a god? Do I have free will? How do I know anything?

"As a discipline, we're not as good as we should be at speaking in a publically accessible way about philosophically interesting topics," Bennett said. "This topic is one that people obviously find interesting."