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“Philosophy, a way of thinking about the world, the universe, and society. It works by asking very basic questions about the nature of human thought, the nature of the universe, and the connections between them” (Socrates). Thomas Nagel, one of the most influential philosophers of our time, brings up many of the worlds most asked questions in his book. “What Does It All Mean”. How do we know anything? What is free will? What is the true meaning of life? Are all topics philosophized by Nagel in this book to inspire the reader's curiosity and to help us discover the solutions individually.
Is anything real? The sun, the moon, the floor under my feet, the computer i’m typing this paper on.
Does any of it actually exist? Or is it just a figment of my imagination? Can we prove any of this actually exist? Well according to Nagel, there is no way humans can prove anything real exists thats is beyond the projection of the thoughts in our mind.
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“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”
Meaning, The external world (The world consisting of all the objects and events which are experienceable or whose existence is accepted by the human mind, but which exist independently of the mind) is just an invention of the human mind, and there's no way to prove that it really exists because of the fact that we cant prove that something outside of our mind exist externally because we are still using our mind to prove it. Thus, making it pointless.
“If all your experience were a dream with nothing outside, then any evidence you tried to use to prove to yourself that there was an outside world would just be part of the dream”. Nagel then starts to argue the existence of a objective reality (a collection of things we are certain exists beyond us). Then states if there is such thing as a reality that can be “objective” That there is no way we would be able to comprehend it.
“If you knocked on the table or pinched yourself, you would hear the knock and feel the pinch, but that would be just one more thing going on inside your mind like everything”. Critics argue that the external world is real because it's there to be observed. However, the egocentric predicament counters this argument by stating we can’t view truth outside of our own consciousness. For someone who is trying to find out if what's outside their mind is real you can't rely on how things seem to be inside your mind for the conclusion. But at the same time, you must rely on what's inside your mind for the conclusion. This idea can also be related to the philosopher David Hume. Who stated that it is impossible to prove sensory experiences is caused by an external world. Thus, causing him to believe that senses are a mere projection of the mind. Nagel then begins to discuss a person's past memories and how we really can't prove if they actually really happened and if it's a possibility that they were just inserted their.
In my opinion, I can see both sides of the argument. I can see why Nagel believes that there is a possibility that nothing is real and reality itself can just be a figment of our imagination. For instance, there is literally no way to prove that anything is real because our mind is our everything at the end of the day. However, there is a possibility that Nagel is wrong and the external world does actually exist. Everything is real, the sun, the moon, the floor under my feet, the computer i’m typing this paper on. It’s all real. I mean, how can a friend and I remember the same exact experience that happened in the past if the past a just a conjuring of our mind and never really happened? Do we share the same mind? Or is my friend also a conjuring of my mind and doesn't actually exist? At the end of the day, I think im leaning more towards Nagles philosophy however not as extreme. Im leaning towards Nagels side because I do have some reservations about the world and the legitimacy of it. I mean how does it even exist? How are we here right now? What created the universe? What created whatever created the universe? I mean the universe had to come from something right? Something cannot come from nothing. That's like looking inside an empty room and waiting for eternity for something to happen, nothing ever will. All these questions that I have that science just doesn't really explain pushes me to believe that the external world isn't real because how could it be. At the end of the day, I do believe that our mind conjures up some things such as pain, emotions, etc. But i do believe their is an external world although I don't know how it came to be or why I even believe it.
Decisions, Decisions. . . Are our decisions actually being made by us or are we already predetermined to make a decision? In this chapter, Nagel argues that choices are not predetermined in advance. "I could have had a peach instead, do you mean that it depended only on your choice? You chose chocolate cake, so that's what you had, but if you had chosen the peach, you would have had that”. In this Statement Nagel is exploring the idea that nothing up until you actually choose whether you want the peach or chocolate cake causes a change in what your choice will be. You choosing the peach is still realistically a possibility until you decided in that split second to choose the chocolate cake. Nothing was ever predetermined. However, Nagel does believe that somethings are deterministic. Determinism, according to Nagels philosophy, is a theory that causation is going to happen no matter what. The causation is so strong that the outcome is inevitably going to happen. Everything that will ever happen in these scenarios are already tightly buckled in and will happen no matter what, and you can predict this happening with perfect precision. For example, the sun will rise tomorrow, the sun will set tomorrow, night will inevitably come, the sun will rise again, etc. Are all deterministic. The sun will never not rise tomorrow unless the world stops rotating or the sun vanishes. In the peach and cake example, the craving for the chocolate cake was just stronger than the craving for a peach. If determinism were true in this case, you wouldn't even feel the need of wanting the chocolate cake over the peach because your actions were already predetermined to choose the peach. You wouldn't have had the split second decision that changed your decision purely depending on what you were craving more at that moment. "If I thought everything I did was determined by my circumstances and my psychological condition, I would feel trapped" (Nagel).
In my opinion, if determinism is true for not just things externally like the sun, moon, etc. But for human beings and life aswell, life would pretty much be the world's longest movie. Everything you say, do, think, act, is already predetermined. Even your birth was predetermined. This would then raise the question, should we be detained for breaking the law or be shunned for doing anything unethical in general if everything we do is already determined and we have no free will of our actions? For reasons like this is why a agree with Nagel on this subject, at least partly. Think about it, if I choose not to break the law that means it was my choice to obey the law. I could have broken the law, but I didn’t. When people say a person should be rewarded for not commiting a crime and doing the right thing, we are saying they had the power to not commit the act. Our own consciousness can testify to our free will. We feel free when we are partaking in certain acts, and we feel detained when we are being forced to do something. We can clearly tell these two feelings apart, and can distinguish when were are using our free will vs when we believe we are not. Luke Pollard stated in his argument about determinism “Determinism is the view that we cannot decide, or even think, freely, however it may appear otherwise. We are instead constrained to act only as we are preordained to act… I shall argue that it is immediately apparent to us that we are free, and that, while we may be pressured and bullied by our surroundings, it is clear that ultimately the choice is ours – and the responsibility also” (Pollard). Which I agree with. We have all grown up with different primary socializations and environments that shaped us into the person we are to day. I agree these actions do somewhat determine the type of person we would become in the future. However, I do believe we do have free will. And I do believe we can choose our own path and not let our past determine our future.
The meaning of life. The most debated question in human existence and their is still no real general consensus. Why are we here? What is our purpose? Are we doing what we were brought here to do? Who brought us here in the first place? Is there an afterlife? Are all questions debated by mankind since the beginning of time. Nagel, however, claims that life itself is ridiculous and lacks a purpose. Nagel says that believing in a deity to give a meaning to life is absurd. He states this because the idea of living your whole life to fulfill a god's purpose without knowing the point of fulfilling that god's purpose or if that god even has a purpose is in itself absurd. Then that brings the question can there be something out there that gives a point to everything else without having a point itself? Nagel then begins to explain how humans view life. We tend to view life in two ways objectively or subjectively. If we view life objectively we cannot justify the point of life or why it even matters so we just begin to believe that life is meaningless. The people who view life subjectively hold the view that the meaning of one's life is to love yourself and others. This battle in how we see life cause Nagel to believe that life itself is absurd.
At the end of the day, existence is very futile and we dont really matter in the grand scheme of the universe. We do matter to each other, however, in the grand scheme of things. Nagel says that “if we zoom out too far on the time scale, we make ourselves totally insignificant in comparison to the magnitude of the Cosmos. When this happens, we begin to lose meaning and drive in what we do. ” Nagel then states that maybe a good solution to this problem is too zoom out of the telescope and look around you. Life having no real meaning isn't such a bad thing anyways, and I don't think that is what Nagel is trying to say. If life had an objective purpose then when we achieve that purpose… what's left? Whats is the purpose of our life after that. Do we just die? Do we get a medal? Not exactly, I think Nagel is trying to say the meaningless of life is beautiful and to Focus on your health, family, friends, yourself, and just be glad you exist no matter what situation you’re dealing with. And that in itself is the true meaning of life. In my opinion, I totally agree with Nagel. Looking at life objectively there really is no point. Life has absolutely no meaning, and the question if life has a meaning shouldn't even be a thing. We just decided to ask a question that wasn't meant to have an answer. I mean just think about it, if we have been thinking about about if life has a meaning since the begging of time, and to this day still don't have an answer then maybe there is literally no answer. And if there really is a god then what's his purpose? And why is our purpose to fulfill his purpose? At the end of the day, objectively, life doesn't have a meaning, but it does have a purpose. Life is what you make it. We need to stop asking ourselves impossible questions. Do we have a soul? What's the meaning of life? What happens when you die? Is there a god? What exactly is the universe? Are all pointless questions because at the end of the day you'll be left even more confused than when you began asking these impossible questions. We should instead be focused on what's our purpose individually. Can I impact the world? Can I become a better person? Can I become more selfless? Can I better the people around me? These questions can differ for every person since the purpose of one's life is in itself subjective. However, I do think that we should all focus on what we want our legacy to be and how we can positively impact others to make the idea of the meaning of life better, and the purpose of the human race to be a good thing. Because when push comes to shove, we are all stuck on a floating ball of chemicals orbiting around a ball of flames in the middle of an infinite nowhere floating to nowhere at the speed of light. And all we got is each other.
Nagels philosophies on these three topics really resonated with me and I mostly agreed with almost all of what he said. He was never to extreme on his philosophies, but also never to tame, which is exactly where my head is at most of the time. After reading through all these philosophies on; how do we know anything, free will, and the meaning of life. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no conclusion for any of these philosophies. These are questions that would be asked for the next millennium and nobody will have an answer as well because there is no right answer. While I was reading Nagel’s and other philosophers view points on these subjects I found myself agreeing with both sides a majority of the time, while also having a stance of my own. In my opinion, that is why philosophy a such a beautiful thing, because there is no conclusion. So you can keep on thinking about new ideas for eternity. However, after this project I know where I stand on these philosophies and I will try and use what i’ve learned and concluded to better my life and become a better human being.
Analysis Of The Philosophy Of Thomas Nagel. (2024, Feb 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/analysis-of-the-philosophy-of-thomas-nagel-essay
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