Thomas Nagel Volunteer

I. Not too long ago I decided it was important that I took on more volunteer work in my life. Throughout the past two summers I dedicated myself to volunteering for at least eight hours a week. Upon telling one of my friends about the volunteer position she blatantly asked what my purpose was in dedicating myself to volunteer work. She made sure to note my actions will have little significance later in my life. My first reaction was astonishment; I had never thought that one individual could think so negatively of such a positive action. Now, my second thought was that I had befriended a narcissistic bitch. However, my final thought was that maybe she wasn’t necessarily wrong. After reflecting on the conversation, I began questioning my own …show more content…
This encounter I had is one I have held in the back of my mind because it reminds me that life certainly holds some absurdity. This absurdity of life can be recognized by the way we go through the motions and the overwhelming trials and errors, that all seem to lack any significant meaning. Upon discussion in class, I began comparing this encounter to that of the work of Thomas Nagel. Thomas Nagel recognizes we have lives full of absurdity but we must not let this affect the value of the life we live. Ultimately, Nagel concludes we cannot give a definite meaning to life and this is something we are able to consciously recognize. However, Nagel believes that simply because we cannot give meaning to life does not mean we are destined to live a life of despair. Although it may seem as if our absurdities result in a life of insignificance, Nagel’s argument encourages us to approach our absurd lives with a sense of irony: recognizing the inevitable but continuing …show more content…
Although Nagel claims absurdity arises from our arbitrary actions but that we shall not despair because of this, one might argue our actions are not arbitrary but rather have a purpose, presenting no absurdity to our lives in the first place. I fail to agree with this objection. I believe it is fundamentally true, humans are able to recognize an “insignificance” to life. When discussing “The Absurdity of Life Without God,” it was asked of us in-class, if someone were to tell us we could die now or we could live for eternity almost instantly our response was we would choose to die now. I believe our response itself signifies a subconscious belief of absurdity in our lives. If we were living a significantly purposeful life wouldn’t we wish for it to never end? Our natural human instincts for questioning reason and significance is one that is unavoidable. The point of view presented is not meant to be one of negative connotation, however, one to be taken with a grain of salt. One may also argue there is reason to live a life of despair supposing life is recognizably absurd. I also find this objection to be false. Nagel argues Camus who believes we must resist the face of absurdity, while Nagel finds this to be self-pitying (Houston, Class Outline). We can not disregard the absurdity of our lives, we must accept absurdities and live ironically without finding ourselves distraught over the inevitable. In my developmental psychology class, we discussed life as being one “bad