Eagleton, Terry. The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Eagleton argues that the meaning of life can be categorized into different concepts. He specifically used jazz improvisation as an example of reciprocal flourishing, in which people benefit others, but with only self-interested motivation.
This is an incredibly reliable source that includes a comprehensive view of the meaning of life across different disciplines. The jazz group is a good example to support my argument because it precisely explained how improvisation works and interacts with the meaning of life. One limitation would be that it mainly talked about reciprocal flourishing, which means that the philosophical core of my argument was still unproven.
My argument is basically about a contradiction, while composing the motivation of composing music is not for discovering the meaning of life, but it unintentionally recorded my time and ultimately did that through an indirect process. This chapter suggests that the meaning of life can be pointless while it aims for the intrinsic value itself, and this partially supports my idea.
“What we need is a form of life which is completely pointless, just as the jazz performance is pointless. Rather than serve some utilitarian purpose or earnest metaphysical end, it is a delight in itself. It needs no justification beyond its own existence. In this sense, the meaning of life is interestingly close to meaninglessness” (Eagleton 100).