In This Selection Nagel Reflects on the Sense of Absurdity

question 9

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 asserts that one's life is actually absurd.

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Definitions:

Continuous Variables

Variables that can take an infinite number of values within a given range, including decimals and fractions.

Binomial Random Variable

A type of random variable that takes on a fixed number of possible outcomes, with each outcome having a constant probability of occurrence in each independent trial.

Normal Curve

A symmetric, bell-shaped curve representing the distribution of a set of data where most occurrences take place near the mean and probabilities for values taper off equally on both sides.

Continuity Correction

An adjustment made when approximating a discrete distribution with a continuous distribution.