Critique of Existential Questions in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Abstract

In my work, I would like to focus on the criticism and meaningfulness of existential questions in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams. I find it interesting to present “Ultimate questions about life, universe and everything” in Adams’ work from a philosophical perspective, with the search for the meaning of life. The author in his own way illustrates why searching for a rational answer is doomed to failure and wonders why the answer to such an important question should not be irrational. When discussing this issue, I would like to address the work of Rudolf Carnap, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger. I would like to point to Heidegger’s position as a philosopher asking existential questions in relation to the reflections of Carnap and Wittgenstein, who referred to these questions critically from the perspective of the story told in Adams’s book.