Nagel’s Meaning – Robert Bass

According to Thomas Nagel, the fact that gives rise to questions about the meaning of life is bound up with the possibility of occupying a detached perspective upon the world and upon ourselves, viewing them “from nowhere.” It is only because we are capable of taking up or adopting this viewpoint or perspective that we are capable of seeing our lives as contingent, as things which did not have to be or did not have to be as they are, and therefore, that we are able to wonder about whether there is any important sense in which our lives matter or have meaning.