Source: The Meaning of Life: A Very Short Introduction (1 ed 2007) by T. Eagleton. p. 26 Top.
The sham swamis and phoney sages of our time stand in for various more conventional gods who have failed. Philosophers, for example, seem to have been reduced to no more than white-coated
[p. 27 exhibits a photograph.]
[p 28 Top:]
technicians of language. It is true that the idea of the philosopher as a guide to the meaning of life is a popular misconception. Even so, one might expect them to do rather more than attempt to dissuade people from leaping out of windows by pointing out that the grammar of [1.] ‘nothing matters’ differs from that of [2.] ‘nothing chatters’.8 At the same time, theology had been discredited by creeping secularization, as well as by the crimes and follies of the churches.
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8 The Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle once claimed that he had argued a student out of suicide by explaining to him this distinction.
What does 2 mean exactly? I understand chatter's ordinary meaning.