Nagel, The Absurd Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nagel, The Absurd - Essay ExampleNagels beginning(a) argument is that we lead our lives with such intense concern that we become unable to avoid serious-mindedness. This unavoidability of seriousness adds to the absurdity of life. We always have to confront the discrepancy between our serious acts and the possibility of our acts coming true. We be so serious about our actions that any bend in the blank space disturbs our minds. Nagel (1971, sec II, par.7) states that human beings are prudent, they reflect, they weigh consequences, they ask whether what they are doing is worthwhile. They have to weigh the choices and their decisions. This is what makes life all the more somber, and the seriousness cannot be avoided.The second is the inescapability of doubt. When we step substantiate to have a look at our lives and goals, we come to know how superficial like ants our goals are, and how unimportant our struggle is. He states humans have the special capacity to step back and surve y themselves, and the lives to which they are committed, with that detached amazement which comes from watching an ant struggle up a mess of sand (Nagel, 1971, sec II, par.9). This mismatch of what we do and our looking deeply into it, or comparing it to what others are doing, creates absurdity. Yet, Nagel agrees that we conciliate engaged to life, no matter we recognize that life is absurd because our perceptions that life and its goals are arbitrary in comparison to what we are actually doing in our lives.An objection to Nagels perspective is that when we assess a situation and its outcomes, we do so by bringing into consideration some set of values and standards, which serve well us judge the situation, or determine whether it has been carried on in the right fashion. However, this cannot be applied while sagacity our lives. Stepping back to analyze our lives is like stepping into nothing, because there is no set of values and standards lying outside our lives, which could he lp to