Nagel what makes life absurd

Wolf really does a good job of explaining this concept in her article by trying to explain how no one knows what the evolution of future society will be which is why it is important to concentrate on now. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Home Sample Page. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Daniel Dennett, "Where Am I? Roderick M. Chisholm, "Human Freedom and the Self". David Hume, "Of Liberty and Necessity".

Harry G. Frankfurt, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility". Frankfurt, "Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person". Thomas Nagel, "Moral Luck". Jeremy Bentham, "The Principle of Utility".

John Stuart Mill, "Utilitarianism". Carritt, "Criticisms of Utilitarianism". Smart, "Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism". Bernard Williams, "Utilitarianism and Integrity". Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality". Immanuel Kant, "Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals".

Thomas Nagel, "War and Massacre". Rosalind Hursthouse, "Right Action". John Rawls, "A Theory of Justice". For Nagel, the discrepancy between the importance we place on our lives from a subjective point of view, and how gratuitous they appear objectively, is the essence of the absurdity of our lives.

This analysis rests on two points: 1 the extent to which we must take our lives seriously; and 2 the extent to which, from a certain point of view, our lives appear insignificant. The first point rests on the evidence of the planning, calculation, and concerns with which we invest in our lives.

Think of how an ordinary individual sweats over his appearance, his health, his sex life, his emotional honesty, his social utility, his self-knowledge, the quality of his ties with family, colleagues, and friends, how well he does his job, whether he understands the world and what is going on in it.

Leading a human life is full-time occupation to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern. The second point rests on the reflections we all have about whether life is worth it. Usually, after a period of reflection, we just stop thinking about it and proceed with our lives. So when does this quest for justification end? Nagel says it ends when we want it to.

We can end the search in the experiences of our lives or in being part of a divine plan, but wherever we end the search, we end it arbitrarily.

Once we have begun to wonder about the point of it all, we can then ask of any proposed answer—what is the point of that? So when we step back and reflect on our lives, we contrast the pretensions we have about the meaning of them with the larger perspective in which no standards of meaning can be discovered.

Nagel contrasts his position on the absurd with epistemological skepticism. Skepticism transcends the limitations of thoughts by recognizing the limitations of thought. Skepticism implies that we do not know what reality is. Similarly, when we step back from life, we do not find what is really significant. We just continue to live taking life for granted in the same way we take appearances for granted.