Thomas Nagel’s: The Absurdity of Life

In this term paper, I entrust cover ab f wholly(prenominal) out breeding, cobblers last and the sloppedity of liveness, by wake the divergent methods of this term paper which be the following the synthesis, analysis, critique and the fartherthermost superstar is the conclusion. Personally, I admit that the handwriting of doubting doubting Thomas Nagel entitled The att give up from outrigh in that location as my one reference, is so difficult to comprehend and I cipher, this reference or deem is non fit for the first clipping giveer who takes the philosophy course. But rather, I think it is intended only for those expertss in philosophy course, who rumpful easily understand the chapters in the book.However, in spite of that difficulty that I drive home been arrived, what I did was to go beyond my best with pressing mind just to choke some insights of that book and of course, so that the readers result give some intention to read this works. However, when I di d this term paper, I continuously kept on mentation that this difficulty, is single out of my training, hitherto though it gives my mind so painful tho I neer stop to work on it, just for that difficulties. Even though, the book implies a really analytic approach.Indeed, Im happy to hypothecate that the book teaches my mind to think beyond this instauration and it gives me some techniques to broaden my mind and more so to acknowledge my topic which is the ridiculousness of liveliness clock time. Honestly, I scramnt finished reading the book b atomic number 18ly I think if Im going to continue reading the book, although all(prenominal) chapter birth a connection and has difference interpretation, it would makes my mind more building complex to examine the different insights of e real chapters. I read only the last(a) chapter of the book which focuses more about flavor.Because I think, it would make me inte simplenessing to discuss about bread and butter, because some people or majority are now chip in this benign of fear to face bread and butterspan and to face finis. So, in this term paper, I in addition dedicate my work to those people who are struggling about the different phobia in demeanor. Thus, I comprehend some voices that would enounce that the book is an interesting book. But, I renounce at that place words and I did non affirm nevertheless. In the brain, that its very hard to understand the different connections in every chapter. In the early(a) comprehend, I have in give care manner this feeling to affirm on what they said, in the sense that it gives us enlightenment and wider mind.Thomas Nagel as contemporary philosopher wanted to tack together off the vicious circle regarding many possibilities that would happen in animated and even in death. Yes, opening would positively happen in our invigoration unless as my suggestion, we depart minimize the fear in liveness in all that we acquire because we k now that The one guides us in every steps of our journey. I. Synthesis Life is analogous the proportion of the spider1 where directly advanceed in the urinal of the mens room who have a unique attitude of organism.It harbours on moving until it witnesss a comfortable and potent place to continue feeding any tiny attractive insects. So, from this analogy I think the spider has two vantage shows here by tang for at life. These two standpoints here are the characteristics in life which are synthetic and analytic. It is in some manner listed as the passivity of life in looking at to the physical world because it insurems that it keeps on moving to arise the infinite gratification but as homo hold outence whoremastert satisfy. Thomas Nagel presented life as instances, while pardoning the me leanhysical life.However, as I could see Nagel somehow used also the anthropological explanation about life. As what I understood the book of Nagel that life is the center in th e universe. It manifestly nub that if we controvert to realise life, the universe also affected and experience negation because universe is composed of bodily life, which every aliveness organism seems to experience human beings. As Blondel said, that we should recognized our responsibility or duty to live life. It pith that life would undergo a certain process to go masking to the origin.In other words, it has certain path of reflexive to think what should life to be. in that location is a movement in life which seems to be the prime moving company in controlling the condition of the world. Thus, dissatis accompanimention in life is unavoidable but as human being, we keep on desiring more and more and we think that all what we desire passel achieve it. As Maurice Blondel would say never stop continue to seek what is in life. As Blondel said it discount be less perfect but it lavnot be perfect as we seek life. This means that we raft achieve what should life to be but not totally.As human being, we have life and we experiment rendering life by moving ego-importance to attain the very signification of life. However, we should not forget to go beyond the contradiction of freedom is infinite truthfulness as Blondel said. We should act life according to our norm, rendering ourselves into action in sacrifices that undergo a hectic process to attain the very meaning of life. Thomas Nagel, emphasis life in general. Including the life of the animals, and as we good recognize see the different animals, keeps also in finding the space in this world wherein they were capable to survive whatever challenge that would give to personality.Like for event the life of a turtleneck that is not incapable of living in the terminal pointed water, so the turtle would be transfer near in the abundant water areas such as in fishpond, near in the posits where the water keep on perioding towards the certain area where the turtle is capable to live. However, i t doesnt matter interchangeable this situation but at that place is a slight the same standpoints. Indeed, Thomas Nagel presented life as instances or in the word unintended and still a enigma. A mystery which is cannot be solved in a logical way. Thus, life for me has some involvement to negate the endiveness and it is infallible in life, as Thomas Aquinas would say.If we emphasise to looks at the case of life in our time, we practicable know the flow of life it has been a structure to make. However, we annunciated to someone by just compare our existence to other egotism-importance. LIFE The point of objectivity with respect to evaluate runs the risk of having value behind altogether. We may extend a standpoint so removed from the perspective of human life that all we can do is to observe nothing seems to have a value of the kind it appears to have from inside and all we can see is human desires, human striving human valuing as an activity or condition2As far as I u nderstand from this footnote, it seems that it aims to negate the human life so that we could somehow focus only on the objectivity as stem to look at life giving distance to evaluate life beyond the value of life itself. It is just like to deny the outcome of life and then transcend in verifiable way, so that we can evaluate life by observing the condition of the world. The uneasy sexual congress between inner and outer perspectives, neither of which we can escape, makes it hard to necessitate open a coherent attitude toward the fact that we exist, toward the meaning or point our lives3 4Yes, since we exist in a mystery or accidental way by means of our parents. We cannot set-a embark on the coherent attitudes of life because of the fact that we are imperfect being that have the access to look at the physical world as full of dissatisfaction and as well as looking the content of the world clinically. In other hand, by doing such different functions in our existence, we can slowly know the identity of what should life to be. The same individual who is intrinsicly submitted without destroying it leaving him divided.And objection self, noticing that it is personally monovular with the object of its detachment, comes to feel trapped in this event life detached but unable to disengage and dragged along by a d have gotive seriousness it cant even attempt to rid of It means that Thomas Nagel from this passages life reduced from cosmopolitan to ill-tempered which the individual life. We have individual insights by looking at life. That there is something things that we not still to know in each individual, that is why Nagel reduce the intent self.However, it is like this if we try to compare our self to other personally, it seems that there is something that makes us human being different and yet we cannot grasp at it easily, as if we are passive to grasp it. As if, it is known to us but we cannot hold it and that makes everyone unique. It is just like comparing the two people and then eat ups the thing makes different. No doubt many who have experienced the discomfort of objective detachment from themselves only if forget about it and live inside the world as if there were no remote realize5It means that sometimes as we continue to live in the world, we sometimes forget the foundation garment in life to go back the objective detachment and we simply live our life miserable without seeing the foreign world, as if we are in blind fold to see the extraneous world. Thomas Nagel emphases that we should not forget what direct life to find the very essence of it by looking the flow of life itself. The wish to live so far as possible in full recognition that ones position in the universe is not central has anelement of the apparitional longing about it, or at least an on acknowledges and includes it can be fruitful, even if complete integration inevitably eludes us6 We cannot deny the fact that most human being searched li fe through religious whimsey or spiritual aspects. Because, some would think in the sense that it can somehow find the authentic resolvent of life, on what life should be. Even though, some people believe in different doctrines it is necessary to them to worship because they believe that by means of worshiping to something, it can trigger to answer stands of life.I believe that many did this way as contemplation to transcend there self to find the answer of life. The extraneous standpoint and the contemplation of death lead to release of equilibrium in life. Most of us have felt a constant undertow of giddiness in the makes and ambitions that give our lives their forward drive7 Life is like a spirit it has the cleverness to transcend in every moment, and it has mind that keeps on thinking in advance on what testament happened about natural phenomenon of life basing to the objective reality.It is somehow like putting life into distance and fronting with the external standpoin t in able to destroy the objective reality. However, it is always keep on contemplating to transcend life itself looking to others which also keep on wondering that is why the external would allow breaking life into death. If we look the very context of life, it seems that if we could look closely the phenomenon beyond life, there is something would appear that life is like cycle. If there is life, there is also the time of death, which is call as the natural phenomenon of life?So, we could not confiscate life because life is only cooperating according to existence. I addition , if put life in the crabbed box and then life would able to get out from that certain box, the life would separate from the external reality and it would create a phenomenon which is in negative side which is death. The real me is not unblemishedly part of my world. The person who I am is a contingent on(p) on me, I depend for my existence on TN, and TN depends on the world and is inessential to it.This is other of the discomforts of being someone in detail my world depends for its existence on his birth, even though he also appears in it as a character. It is eerie to see oneself and ones entire world in this way as a natural product. 8 Thomas from this footnote refers his life according to TN which remind him the being ness of his self in particular. It means that without TN as automobile trunk, the self which represent as I of Thomas Nagel cannot exist anymore in particular.In addition, there should be something body which can represent the square life of Thomas Nagel which can recognize regarding his existence where he depend on it. In other words, If we blow up the whole point, I which is TN represents as the one who is doing the action and it would combine the self so that we can see the being ness of Thomas Nagel. consequence In seeing ourselves from outside we find it difficult to take our lives seriously. This loss of conviction, and attempt to regain it, is the chore of meaning of life. 9So, Thomas Nagel say that if we look at life outside vision, we could see the self has a genuine problem. Because, if we put self outside reality it has lots of calamity to be consider and it has potential to not attain the meaning of life. This problem is quite a difficult to bow. In this problem, I depart give this my answer, regarding this one by exposing my analysis at successive parts of the term paper. The capacity for transcendence brings with it a liability to alienation, and the wish to escape this condition and to find a larger meaning can lead to even great fatuity.Yet we cant abandon the external standpoint because it is our own. 10 transcendency is a factor to attain knowledge, but in this case its quite different. Thus, if we keep on transcending her, the life would become false it is. We can somehow arrived into absurdity and its very depressing point that the life would arrived into negation. Because if try to put life in the external r eality we can somehow see the concrete issue of life to be absurd. Although, we have been sets the different aim in living our existence. In fact, in this footnotes, we could not say that life can attain the meaning of life.Moreover, if keep on transcending ourselves externally, we can not say in the first place that life has a reason to be exists because life in the first place its a mystery and aside from that its full of negation of permeated by psychoneurotic obsession. The real problem is with external point of view, which cannot remain a mere spectator once the self has expanded to accommodate it. It has to join in with the rest and lead this life from which it is dis booked. As a result the person becomes in significant part detached from what he is doing. 11This is just a problem of self from external reality, when it is on the way to expand in leading life into disengaged which can detached from the I, which is the one doing such action. However, this is stay a problem of self, in putting self into external reality. Once, it is reconcile already, it will give us such conclusion about what should the possibility of life to be. It is absurd or it is life a meaning. This is the clue of this paper, to dissect the essence of life. The internal view resist to reduction to a subject interpretation of its contents which the external view tries to force on it.But this puts the objective standpoint in contravene with itself. Finding my objectively insignificant, I am nevertheless unable to extricate myself from an unqualified commitment to it to my aspirations and ambitions, my wishes for fulfillment, recognition, and understanding, and so forth. The sense of absurd is the result of this juxtaposition. 12 The fact that the self govern from external reality, the self would return into passivity which can test the objectivity to create a conflict and the internal reality would reduce to particular self.The standpoints of objectivity will calculate the particul ar object. The loss of self in the individual sense is pattern to require by the revelations of an impersonal view, which takes precedence over the view from here. And apparently it is possible for some individuals to achieve this shrivel up away of the ego, so that personal life continues only as a vehicle for the surpassing self, not as an end itself. 13 The particular individuals can achieve the ego of others, if the ego or the I will sensitive on counteracting the possibility of transcendence.Moreover, transcendence is the factor to recall all the past experience of the particular self. But, it will cause also the conflict in the part of transcendence, if the Ego will not aware of the external reality. So, that would that the self should be careful of transcending while looking the self to the external or outside reality because as Thomas Nagel said that it will the possible can that the life will absurd and he concord about that judgement. I would rather lead absurd life e ngaged in the particular than a seamless transcendental life immersed in the universal. 14As what I understood from this passage from the book, it seems that Thomas Nagel would rather like to project his vision of life in the particular subjective standpoints than to project life in the universal objective reality. Here, we can see the of the essence(predicate) of particular subjectivity and we can also find here the inference point of view about life, wherein life reduces from universal to particular subjectivity. I would rather to affirm the point of Thomas Nagel that life should be in the particular stands so that it will become easy to us to eliminate the habitual weakness in life which are the failures.Objectivity is not content to remain a servant of the individual perspective and its values. It has a life of its own inspiration for transcendence that will not be quieted in response to the call to reassume our true identity. This shows itself not only in the permanent disaff ection from individual life that is the sense of the absurd. 15 The objectivity has a life, as what Thomas Nagel clarifies from this passage, in which can drives the whole rule of transcendence. So, objectivity is not the things subject can be self-employed person itself. It is a matter of looking at the particular subjective reality.The external standpoint plays an important positive role in human penury as well as a negative one, and the two cannot separate. twain depend on the independence of the external view and the pressure it puts us under to bring it into our lives. The sense of the absurd is just a experience of the limits of this effort reached when we ascend higher on the transcendental ladder than a mere human individuality can follow, even with the help of bulky readjustment. 16 It means that if our life climb to objectivity and yet it will not successfully fulfill to complete, the will arrived to absurdity.In this passage, it seems that we can find two movements h ere of life. To go up to objectivity and to retreat from the objectivity to go down, return to particular subjective being and yet this would be the primary cause of absurd life. Thomas Nagel agreed with this kind of thought and he presented that the subject not the complete in objectivity, it would full to go down and then, he said that this is the origin of the absurdity in life. In addition, we transcend objectively and yet we fail to reach the completeness of our transcendence and the possible life to do is to go back into particular.This is the reason why our life will absurd and Thomas Nagel defended on this stock, in saying partially that life will absurd through this instances. We can copy this argument by citing again the analogy of certain spider which chain in the mens urinal room. So, if we try to trace back the analogy of the spider, it seems we can find the same cases to what Thomas Nagel saying about the absurdity of life. So, in the case of the spider, since the spi der is in chain for to the highest degree ten eld and the only thing that the spider can do is to keep mounting the wall up and down in any moment.The same also about the reason why our life will be absurd according Thomas Nagel. This point will be included in the part of my critique. Finally, there is an attitude which cuts through the opposition between transcendent universality and parochial self absorption and that is the attitude of nonegocentric respect for the particular. 17 As what my analogy would explain this passage that there is something an impulse of cutting the universal and particular which can be the cause of life to be absurd.However, from this instance in times of cutting both universal and particular, it would try to say that the subject or the individual self can be the attitude of nonegocentric of the particular subjectivity. DEATH Particular things can have a noncompetitive completeness which is transparent to all aspects to all aspects of the self. This a lso helps explain why the experience of great beauty tends to unify the self the object engages us immediately and totally in a way that makes distinctions among points of view of irrelevant.18 It seems that particular can freely stand transparently to all aspects of self with no competitions to objective reality. The particular here also has its own unifying identity which cultivate by any subject. Most of us can deal about personal self without consulting to the other self and it is an overview of the independent of particular to stand alone and looking only in future by utilise present individual self. This is formally called as unifying idea of the particular which is the principle of particular itself.However, this could not remember that this is only the attitudes or characteristic of particular, which is to unify the principle itself, as a basis in looking to other reality. But rather, the particular has also consists of several transparent characteristics to set as guideli nes to eliminate the completeness of the objectivity. Our constitutional self absorption together with our capacity to recognize its excessiveness make us irreducibly absurd even if we achieve a measure of subjective-objective integration by bring the two standpoints closer together.The gap is too wide to be closed entirely, for anyone who is fully human. 19 From this footnote, Thomas Nagel put self as having limitation to integrate other subject which irreducible to reach the point of absurdity of life in each subject-objective by bringing the two standpoints, in which the two points have a connection to limit the movement of self to other self which can possible, made the absurdity of human life. This is still the problem here, even if life will form other subject which also had life.So, the capacity of self here is quite limited, in short self has limited territory to move. Unlike, the part objectivity, it us has universal movement which means the objectivity has the unlimited to move anytime. We are so accustomed to the parallel progress of subjective and objective time that there is some that there is some shock in the realization that the world will go calmly on without me after I disappear. It is the ultimate form of abandonment.20 It simply means that if the self will experienced in stinger of death, the objective time will not stop to function but it will spontaneously working to keep on transcending and transcending, even if all existence will in that track of death. The objective still continues to exist and do the function to the world. In our objective conception of the world, particular things can come to an end because the possibility of their non- existence is allowed for.The possibility of both the existence and the nonexistence of a particular object, artifact, organism, or person is given by actualities which be either possibility and coexist with both of them. Thus the existence of certain elements and truth of the laws of chemistry underlie the possibility of synthesizing a particular chemical compound, or of decomposing it. Such possibilities rest on actualities21. The issue here regarding this footnote, is that particular things was already have a place wherein it was being actualize and this actuality is no other than death.It is somehow the same with the act and potency. In such life continue moving towards the existence itself and yet as a result is the actuality to be actualize which is death. oddment is actuality, because the possibility of nonexistence is allowed to enter in the particular things which the human being is involved which underlie for this stage to not again exist. This is a very strong form of nothingness, the disappearance of an inner world that had not been thought of as a contingent manifestation at all and whose absence is therefore not the realization of a possibility already contained in the conception of it.It turns out that I am not the sort of a thing I was unconsciously tempt ed to think I was a set of ungrounded possibilities as opposed to a set of possibilities grounded in a contingent actuality22 From these footnotes, refers to the definition of death and it is being referred also to the possibility of realization that had been set to be actualizing as ungrounded series to the possibility of life. This realization that Im referring to is not in the future events but it is rather in the present events of life.It is just like that we can only think in the present but nothingness comes, nothing cans future to think of. other reason to regard death without too much concern is that everyones mortality is part of the general cycle of biological renewal which, like the fact that hawks eat mice, it makes no sense to deplore. 23 practicable speaking death is a part of life which all of the living things including us are subject to dies. On other hand, life has a biological renewal, even if our life will absurd to exist.As Blondel said that life and death has no other way to escape, but to undergo a process to of life which is death is natural to be taken those who exist. Our life is not permanent here on hide out. We only barrowed these lives in lay for us exist. My death was going to occur in consequence of the end of the world. 24 It means that if human being experienced life to exist, human being also will have to experience death which is the consequences of our existence. Human life is not permanent even other living being it has the access to take death. In short, no one is forgive to take life in death.Because, our life here on earth were pass by and because of the very fact that we are mortal being. In short, all things living organism is subject to destined in death. However, living organism even human being hasnt known what peculiar(prenominal) time death will come to us, we just unaware of the time to take death. Conclusion Well, based on the footnotes that I have been explained, the unbelieving mind of Thomas Nagel loo king at life, he really believes that life will absurd by putting life in external reality and proving the common ground of human being which gives us a view that the life will absurd.Thus, I would like first to fill out why our life will absurd by again using the analogy of the spider. So, as I look at the analogy of the spider, for almost ten years in chain in the mens urinal room, so, the only thing that can spider did was to repeated and repeated climbed up in the wall finding the tiny attractive insects to feed as means survival and yet it goes down where the spider started to climb from that particular wall any moment of instances and that makes the absurdity of the life.However, if we try also to rectify our life as human being, we can see the big deal here about the absurdity of life by just looking at our self to the objective reality, in which our life are restless, always keep on in desiring and struggling just to go beyond the objective reality and yet, we fail to go b eyond objectively because we have only limited capacity to grasp that, then we stop to go beyond and go back the origin because we cannot hold the very beyond of life because we are limited to reached that beyond ness and we cannot force ourselves to tap for something divine for us, thats why our life will arrived at absurdity.I will negate the idea of Thomas Nagel because actually in the very nature of life there is no infinite movement to escape from this absurdity of life and this is the very nature of life because, in the first place, we were exist in mystery way with limited knowledge of the external reality. So, what we should to do is only to accept whatever the consequence of our existence.On the other hand, Thomas Nagel considered this absurdity as a consequence of our existence. However, as we know that life will have the access to be absurd, then we should not let our life do what is not good for us but to rather, continue upbringing our life in right path. I therefore, conclude that life wills absurd because our life has a limitation to look at objectively and the limitation is hindrance to absurd life.