Preview

Thomas Nagel Views on Life

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2383 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Thomas Nagel Views on Life
Thomas Nagel’s View on Life Thomas Nagel is a highly intelligent and well-respected American philosopher who wrote the short (10 chapters) introduction to philosophy, “What does it All Mean?” While reading this intriguing brief introduction to philosophy, I couldn’t help but notice how Nagel discusses a variety of thought-provoking questions and theories/ideas regarding how he believes life really is and/or how it is portrayed. For instance, in the chapter titled, “How Do We Know Anything” Thomas Nagel argues that the world we live in is not real. He strongly believes that there is a high possibility that how real we as an individual believe the world is, is simply based on our wild imagination. Later on in Chapter Six, Nagel continues his elucidation of theory on life by arguing that the way we make our decisions is based on “Free Will” which coincidently also happens to be the title of the chapter and then he ends his short introduction to philosophy by presenting to his readers with his final stimulating question, “What is the meaning of life?” Though some may disagree with Nagel’s view on life, on the other hand I cant help but agree with this wise American philosopher and here’s why…
Is Anything Real? When reading Chapter Two of “What does it All Mean?” I couldn’t help but notice how Nagel begins this section off by saying “If you think about it, the inside of your mind is the only thing you can be sure of.” Although some may chose to disagree with Thomas Nagel, I personally do agree with his view on life and the fact that it may not be real. In my opinion, when Nagel suggests that the inside of our mind is the only thing we can be sure of, I believe this is as true as it can be, why you may ask? Well simply because our mind is a very powerful tool in our body that makes everything possible. Our minds do everything for us from just everyday regular thinking and movement to giving us the power to imagine things that sometimes aren’t possible. Is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Who Is Nagel's Argument?

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Nagel's argument is that death is bad to cause individual power by his consenting to directed against views from the beginning, and carefully establish the boundaries of his argument. For example, Nagel decides to leave aside the complex debate over whether we are "immortal" in some fashion - and define death as being the absence of any "conscious survival" .Similarly, he is equally careful to restrict the valuation of life to one's subjectivity instead of viewing it in an objective sense. This removes complications that may come from an "objective" viewing of the valuation of life from the perspective of others. Having thus carefully framed the boundaries of his argument, Nagel presents his key contention with regard to the "asymmetry" in…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    With this objection, there’s a belief that by accepting Nagel’s view that we are absurd creatures with no rational behind our values, we will lose the drive to actively pursue our goals due to the acceptance that our values have no significance to anyone but ourselves. I don’t think that this is a strong objection to Nagel’s view. I believe that we don’t need to prove beyond a doubt that our projects or goals have value to anyone but ourselves. If we believe that our pursuits are valuable, we should pursue them. In addition, we shouldn’t feel ashamed that we can’t prove the value of our projects, but instead embrace that our values are an integral component of our…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Phil 102 Paper

    • 4420 Words
    • 18 Pages

    In his paper, The Absurd, Thomas Nagel attempts to provide some insight regarding the problem of the meaning of life. He makes clear, his conception of this problem, which concerns the natural expression of the sense that life is Absurd, and then offers a persuasive account of what such absurdity might consist in. I believe that Nagel’s proposal provides important insight into the problem of absurdity, and thus a satisfactory resolution to the problem must be able to prove that the aspect in which people view their lives as absurd, and therefore meaningless, is fallacious. I will argue that in his attempt to defend his proposal, Nagel gives good grounds as to the reason of why life is absurd, however, I do not believe that he satisfactorily defends his claim that there are good grounds for in which, it exists. I intend to analyze Nagel’s arguments through his considerations of the epistemological problem of how a person could warrant their life as meaningful, and the metaphysical assertion that a person’s life is meaningful. I shall also purport my own opinions in conclusion of my analysis. In examining his considerations, I will come to the conclusion that the mere truth of Nagel’s epistemological thesis lies in the conclusion that people lack ‘subjective guarantees’ that their lives are not absurd, and therefore the fear or doubt in regarding whether their lives are meaningful is unavoidable.…

    • 4420 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Introduction: In this outline you will learn about who God is, and the nature of our universe. Does us living in this world have a purpose, or is it just wasting our time? Growing up we are set around a worldview of beliefs, and stories, and are set to believe that those are true. This world allows for a diversity of worldviews, but which one is correct or incorrect?…

    • 551 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nagel’s subjectivity argument appears fairly straight-forward – Nagel asserts that there is a unique and subjective component of consciousness, and this component defeats any attempt to define consciousness in objective terms. Nagel believes that it is impossible to fully understand consciousness without the subjective experience. Intentional states cannot explain a subjective experience; therefore, the only to understand consciousness using reductionist theory would be to remove the subjective component – this would obviously be illogical. Nagel concludes that consciousness cannot be explained by reductionists. Physicalism also fails to explain consciousness due to the subjective component.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Nagel is probably most widely known within the field of philosophy of mind as an advocate of the idea that consciousness and subjective experience cannot be reduced to brain activity. In this essay, I will critically evaluate Thomas Nagel’s What is it Like to be a Bat? His paper isn't really about the sensory world of bats; it's more of a critique of reductionist theories of the mind. Nagel argues that consciousness has a subjective aspect, and that understanding other mental states is difficult or impossible for those not able to experience those mental states. I will explain this by introducing the content and by explaining the importance of consciousness as well as the subjective character of experience.…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Nagel is one of the most notable scholars who has offered support for some of the concepts of intelligent design. Despite being an atheist, and dismissing the concept of an all-powerful God as the driving force behind intelligent design, Nagel argues that evolutionary theory fails to account for human cognition, consciousness and…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Nagel's Argument

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Thomas Nagel’s paper he points out some of the problems brought on by consciousness in the mind-body problem and uses ‘subjective character of experience’ in arguing his stance against physicalism. The usual physicalist would explain that the mind-body problem is that, the mind is the brain. If mental states are physical states, then there’s got to be some kind of thing that it’s like to have an experience of these states, which isn’t explained by the physicalist theory of the…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "The meaning of life, that which makes life happy, is to find one 's particular purpose, to will that one thing which constitutes purity of heart, and to become a person capable of carrying out that idea" (Kierkegaard, 2000, p.…

    • 2014 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thomas Nagel starts to make an argument for this theory in his essay. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? In his essay, Nagel tries to imagine what it would be like to be a bat. He determines it is impossible to accurately imagine the scenario because what our brains are able to imagine is limited (EP 139 bottom). Our imagination is limited by what our minds know and experience (EP 139 middle).…

    • 1521 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Theistic Response

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The four possible types of responses to life’s meaning are the Theistic Response, Human Progress Response, Nihilism Response, and Self-Chosen Commitment. The theistic response is the relationship between the person’s relationship to a larger plan. Everything has a purpose and is part of a bigger plan, according to Thomas Aquinas. The theistic response has meaning to life, because it supports the claim that humans are part of a bigger plan created by God. Everything that was created is part of a greater purpose in God’s divine plan. According to the theistic response human life is not meaningless, many people who search for a meaning to life is satisfied with this response. The theistic response is not just subjected to Christianity, many other…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    I believe it is all real. The physical world of course is real, how else would we feel pain? Love? Happiness? And the spiritual world is just as real as this world, we just can’t see it. There are too many unexplained things that happen to not believe in the spiritual world. For instance, one year my family and I sat down to Thanksgiving dinner. We had the entire family over and every one was sitting at the table, but we all heard footsteps above our head as if someone was running in the hallway upstairs. So was that in all of our imaginations? I think not.…

    • 3860 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Philosophy of I, Robot

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “I think there I am” is a famous quote used by Descartes which basically tell us if we are thinking then we are alive. He further state that our senses can deceive us so what we need to do is focus on the mind, which he stated when he said “All that I have, up to this moment, accepted as possessed of the highest truth and certainty, I received either from or through the senses. I observed, however, that these sometimes misled us; and it is the part of prudence not to place absolute confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.” We often make more judgements on perception than we make perceptions in life even in our moment of sleep. When we are sleeping we tend to dream of things which represent to ourselves in the same situation or circumstances, or even sometimes others less probable, which the insane things are presented to us in our waking moments. This is clearly stated when Descartes “I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming.” The mind is where we experience the universe so we need to have close distinct ideas, whether we make an accurate or false judgement it is that if the mind. Even though our bodies play a major part in what we do along with the mind, hence dualism, Descartes stated that if we are stripped from everything we can still think, therefore gives great meaning to the term “I think therefore I am”.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Life is about knowledge. Life encompasses internal meaning and spiritual reality. Humans exhibit this knowledge through internal thoughts of the world around them. All humans are born with an inner-good. The inner good can take something so ordinary and boring and turn it into spectacular ideals. In life, it is important to hold values, education, spirituality and creativity in the highest regard. The most valuable of these characteristics is that of education and spirituality. Holding these two characteristics of utmost importance can enable in human being to think outside the box of life itself and make all things possible. With education, one can learn and collectively approach life with understanding and competence. With spirituality, one can connect themselves with something with bigger meaning and create values. I believe that seeing everything in this world as something more than what it is in plain sight creates an attitude and understanding that is so powerful and meaningful that nothing can stop you. I believe that knowledge is the most powerful weapon in the world. Holding this near and dear to my heart I believe that anything is possible and there is nothing or no one that can stop you from learning and believing.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Richard Taylor and Susan Wolf's views on the meaning of life, they both have very different perspectives when it comes to this matter. Taylor seems to argue that the meaning of life is about an result of satisfaction. Taylor begins by observing that it is difficult in the first place to even cope what it means to question whether life has meaning, and that the question is too challenging to answer. Taylor argues that all life as we know it is whether viewed from a very big perspective, or at the level of one person and that life is nothing but a big look of struggles and attempts that ultimately lead to nothing or something pointless in that matter. The only thing that we must live through is how it will always be repeating itself, more like a never-ending cycle. There is no end about the struggles that are lead to that could reason or have claim to meaning. In this perspective, Taylor believes, our lives are meaningless. On…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays