In the Explication of the ‘Meaningfulness’ of Life: A Philosophical Analysis of Ian Flemming's James Bond 007 and Wole Soyinka's King's Horseman

This paper argues that the meaningfulness of life is dependent on and determined by the certain knowledge of a person’s life, intentional pursuit, and the fulfillment of purpose. This ultimately opens up challenges on the need to clarify the nature of the meaningfulness of life. The quest towards the understanding of life raises fundamental questions such as: What or who defines a person’s purpose and allocates purpose? Does purpose have an essential or existential trait? How are the concepts of existentialism and essentialism connected and what role(s) do both play in the exploration of the idea of meaningfulness of life? This paper adopts a critical-comparative analysis of two distinct characters from two different socio-political backgrounds and art genres: Ian Flemings’ James Bond 007 (a film) and Wole Soyinka’s King’s Horseman (Elesin Oba) (a play) to provide clarity and context to the roles known purpose, commitment and free choice play in the analysis and determination of meaningfulness (lessness) of life. The value of this discourse to knowledge is in the exploration of the contradicting but complementary contributions of existentialism and essentialism to the understanding of the meaningfulness of life as well as the roles free choice and commitment to purpose play.