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Full Idea
Those seeking to give their lives meaning usually envision a role in something larger than themselves, …but such a role can't confer significance unless that enterprise is itself significant.
Gist of Idea
If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be meaningful
Source
Thomas Nagel (The Absurd [1971], §3)
Book Ref
Nagel,Thomas: 'Mortal Questions' [CUP 1981], p.16
A Reaction
Which correctly implies that this way of finding meaning for one's life is doomed.
| 3268 | If a small brief life is absurd, then so is a long and large one [Nagel] |
| 3269 | If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be meaningful [Nagel] |
| 3270 | Justifications come to an end when we want them to [Nagel] |