In This Selection Nagel Reflects on the Sense of Absurdity

question 14

Multiple Choice

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.
-According to Nagel, when we recognize that what we do is arbitrary, we tend to

• A) disengage from life.
• B) lose our ability to see life.
• C) continue being engaged in life.
• D) live as animals do.

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Definitions:

Acronym

A word formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a single word (e.g., NATO, laser).

Big Five

A model describing five broad dimensions of human personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, used in psychological assessment.

Personality Traits

Enduring characteristics that describe an individual's behavior, mindset, and emotional patterns.

Serial-Position Effect

The tendency for individuals to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst.