Meaning Of Life In The Absurd By Thomas Nagel

Meaning of Life

What is life? What is the meaning of our existence? These existential questions were asked by almost every individual alive at some point in their life. Over the years many philosophers have come up with individual explanations to why they believe life can be unreasonable, futile, the will of god, or just simply meaningless. Philosophers such as Albert Camus and Thomas Nagel believe in the ideology that life is absurd. In his publication “The Absurd” Nagel, questioned why sometimes people feel that life is absurd and how should we respond once we are aware of life’s absurdity. Throughout this essay we will discuss what Nagel believes is the best way to answer these questions. To begins his argument, Nagel explains how sometimes people believe that ‘what we do now will not matter in a million years’ which he states is a poor argument because he believes that if our present actions are absurd then their mattering in the distant future can hardly give them meaning. Because if something is to matter

Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.” (Nagel, 719)

Nagel also argues that we all reflect about whether life is worth it or not. To avoid this this absurdity, we try to give meaning to our lives through what we do “seeking fulfillment in service to society, the state, the revolution, the progress of history, the advance of science, or religion and the glory of God.” (Nagel, 720) But this leads to the conflict that if this thing that gives meaning to our life, it must be significant. Therefore, we could ask the same question about the meaning of its purpose which leads to a chain of