Response to Nagel Chps 9-10

I think Nagel was spot on with his chapters on death and the meaning of life. Many of the beliefs that he communicated during these two chapters were ones that I held previously and that are on my mind frequently. The idea of his that I probably agree with most is that Death is neither good nor bad. Death is nothingness, which the human mind simply cannot fathom. When you ask the average human to imagine total nothingness, they might imagine just whiteness, which is not nothing. The only possible way to imagine total nothingness is – and Nagel mentioned this – to imagine what things were like before you were born, which is a task that is beginning to reach impossibility for the human mind; how did you feel prior to your existence, when you were essentially dead (this question is a paradox but aids the point)? Thus I believe that death cannot be good or bad because (a) total nothingness can neither be good or bad and (b) something which we cannot wrap our minds around cannot be labeled as “good” or “bad.” I also agree with Nagel’s opinion on the meaning of life. The ideas of existentialism and absurdism are very intriguing to me. I recognize the absurdity of life, that in the end everything will cease to exist, but I also recognize that it up to each individual person is responsible for determining their own purpose in life.