Many theorists have argued that the meaningfulness of a life is related in some way to the narrative or story that can be told about that life. Relationists claim that a life gains in meaning when a particular set of “narrative relations” obtain between the events that constitute it. Recountists claim that it is the telling of a story about those relations, not the relations themselves, that confers meaning. After identifying problems with existing versions of both of these positions, this paper introduces a new and more satisfying variant of Recountism , centered on the old-fashioned idea that a meaningful life is, in part, an intelligible one. I argue that personal narration does play a role in a meaningful life and that my “Fitting Story” account provides the best explanation of how and why that is so.

中文翻译：

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生活中的叙事和意义

许多理论家认为，生活的意义在某种程度上与可以讲述的关于该生活的叙述或故事有关。关系主义者声称，当构成生命的事件之间获得一组特定的“叙事关系”时，生命就会获得意义。叙述者声称，赋予意义的是讲述关于这些关系的故事，而不是关系本身。在确定了这两种立场的现有版本的问题后，本文介绍了一种新的、更令人满意的 Recountism 变体，其中心是过时的想法，即有意义的生活在某种程度上是一种可理解的生活。我认为个人叙述确实在有意义的生活中发挥了作用，我的“合适的故事”帐户提供了如何以及为什么会这样的最佳解释。