In This Selection Nagel Reflects on the Sense of Absurdity

question 8

True/False

In this selection Nagel reflects on the sense of absurdity that most of us feel from time to time. The sense of absurdity arises, he says, from the "collision between the seriousness with which we take our lives and the perpetual possibility of regarding everything about which we are serious as arbitrary, or open to doubt." Nagel thinks that Camus's response to the absurd (defiance or scorn) is inappropriate; it's "romantic and slightly self-pitying." He prefers instead to approach the absurd with acceptance, with irony instead of heroism or despair.
-Nagel says that in ordinary life a situation is absurd when it includes a conspicuous discrepancy between pretension or aspiration and reality.

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Definitions:

Future

A term referring to events that have not yet occurred or the time period in which these events will happen.

Market

A place or system where buyers and sellers interact to exchange goods, services, or information, determining prices through supply and demand.

Competitive Market Economy

An economic system where businesses compete freely without undue interference, allowing supply and demand to determine prices and outputs.

Entrepreneur

An individual who organizes and operates a business, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.