Nagel and Russell on Absurdity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Nagel and Russell on Absurdity - Essay Example Thomas Nagel and Betrand Russell wrote about the absurdity that defines life. Many philosophers have focused on the issue of absurdity as it is one of the surging worries that human beings experience continually. This explains why different philosophers have been trying to highlight the causes of the debilitating feeling that every venture in life is absurd. Realizing the causes of the feeling of absurdity has not been enough. There is the ardent desire of understanding the different ways of dealing with absurdity. This paper will analyze the views of Nagel and BetrandRussell concerning the absurdity. Summary of the ‘Absurd’ by Nagel Nagel begins by highlighting the fact that many people often make known their feeling that life presents a lot of absurdity, sometimes in a continuous manner. However, he asserted that few of the reasons used to explain how the absurdities of life result serve as adequate defense to explain why life is that way. He provides examples of the reasons that people have put forward as potential causes of absurdity. One of these reasons is the opinion that whatever transpires in life at the moment does not present evidence that it will matter in a million years into the future. The feeling that current ventures in life do not present any feasibility of being crucial factors in a progression of a million years. Nagel refutes this claim by highlighting that such thinking invites critical thought of analyzing whether things really matter. If one can doubt whether something happening in the current life will matter in the future, then it is only rational to realize that whether that thing is b ringing happiness or misery, it may not even matter (Pojman 555). For other people, the absurdity of life emerges from the realization that human are minute forms in a vast universe. This perception of human life in terms of space and time in comparison with the entire universe does not suffice to explain the cause of absurdity in life. Nagel argues that this reason is insufficient because little would change even if humans occupied a larger proportion of the universe (556). He opined that living a longer life and occupying greater space would imply that absurdity would increase at the same proportion of space and time. Nagel also mentions that some people experience absurdity because they realize that all then justifications used to present life with meaning will eventually diminish. However, Nagel mentions that even if these justifications were reliable enough to define the entire process of life, they would diminish eventually. He further argues that even if a single justificatio n had the potential of defining an individual’s entire life, it would require an additional justification to make it worthwhile (556). According to him, all chains of justifications depend on external factors for their relevance, factor that makes them diminish at some point. With this argument, Nagel highlighted that it was pointless to blame the insufficiency of justifications for the absurdity of life. In the second part, Nagel begins by highlighting the fact that absurdity resulted from the crises and discrepancies between the pretexts and aspirations of an individual in life. However,he highlights that individual often visualize a way of adjusting aspirations. In case such an adjustment is impossibility, the individual tries to avoid the reality of the absurd situation. However, the feeling of absurdity increases when an individual does not find a valid escape from the previously defined aspirations (557). Moreover, Nagel highlighted that a person’s ambitions were possible causes of the feeling of absurdity especially if the person keeps searching changes that present the potential of altering life. This may often result is an individual takes life’s decisions activities too seriously. He highlights that although life needs constant attention, taking it too seriously can be detrimental causing absurdity. Moreover, perceiving others