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The Absurd Author(s): Thomas Nagel Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 68, No. 20, Sixty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the
In “The Absurd,” (1971) Nagel asks why people sometimes feel that life is absurd. For example, they often say that life is absurd because nothing we do now will matter in the distant future. But Nagel points out that the corollary of this is that nothing in the distant future matters now: “In particular, it does not matter now that in a ...
Thomas Nagel on why life is absurd – Ask a Philosopher. May 9, 2012 ~ Geoffrey Klempner. Kim asked: Nagel considers the prospect that life is just absurd. What does it mean to say that life is absurd? Are there good reasons to believe that life is absurd? What does Nagel think, and why? Answer by Jürgen Lawrenz.
Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd”1 Most people feel on occasion that life is absurd, and some feel it vividly and continually. Yet the reasons usually offered in defense of this conviction are patent-ly inadequate: they could not really explain why life is absurd. Why then do they provide a natural expression for the sense that it is?
Tweet. Is life absurd? Should we bother with it? Does it matter either way? Rightly or wrongly, Thomas Nagel’s 1971 article, “ The Absurd ”, is one of the most celebrated and widely-cited contributions to the literature on these questions. I certainly am struck by how frequently people refer to it in conversations I have with them about this topic.
In his seminal paper, "The Absurd," Thomas Nagel (1970) offers a. key insight into the problem of the meaning of life.1 In particular, he sets out a certain conception of the absurd and then argues that there are good grounds for thinking that such absurdity applies to our own lives, thereby rendering them devoid of meaning.
A video lecture on Thomas Nagel's "The Absurd."
