The full quotation is "... the natural view that death is an evil because it brings to an end all the goods that life contains. We need not give an account of these goods here, except to observe that some of them, like perception, desire, activity, and thought, are so general as to be constitutive of human life. They are widely regarded as formidable benefits in themselves, despite the fact that they are conditions of misery as well as of happiness, and that a sufficient quantity of more particular evils can perhaps outweigh them. That is what is meant, I think by the allegation that it is good simply to be alive, even if one is undergoing terrible experiences. The situation is roughly this: There are elements which, it added to one's experience, make life better; there are other elements which if added to one's experience, make life worse. But what remains when these are set aside is not merely neutral: it is emphatically positive. Therefore life is worth living even when the bad elements of experience are plentiful, and the good ones too meager to outweigh the bad ones on their own. The additional positive weight is supplied by experience itself, rather than by any of its consequences." 'Death' (essay), Thomas Nagel, CUP, 1979 http://dbanach.com/death.htm Note that the paragraph in the earlier 1970 version of the essay published in Nous; Death Author(s): Thomas Nagel Source: Noûs, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb ...
static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1011404/27295252/.../Nagel_Death.pdf?token... https://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/maydede/mind/Nagel_Death.pdf ends at "perhaps outweigh them."
"Nagel, Thomas 1937-". Encyclopedia.com. November 24, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
jstor.org
Pyka, Marek (2005). "Thomas Nagel on Mind, Morality, and Political Theory". American Journal of Theology & Philosophy. 26 (1/2): 85–95. ISSN0194-3448. JSTOR27944340.
Rhys Southan explains such ordinary experiences as having value "... because of the almost unbelievable fact that there is a world at all, and that we're conscious beings who get to be in it, feelings its sensations, and interacting with it and other similarly improbable existers." http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/the-vise-side-of-life/
The full quotation is "... the natural view that death is an evil because it brings to an end all the goods that life contains. We need not give an account of these goods here, except to observe that some of them, like perception, desire, activity, and thought, are so general as to be constitutive of human life. They are widely regarded as formidable benefits in themselves, despite the fact that they are conditions of misery as well as of happiness, and that a sufficient quantity of more particular evils can perhaps outweigh them. That is what is meant, I think by the allegation that it is good simply to be alive, even if one is undergoing terrible experiences. The situation is roughly this: There are elements which, it added to one's experience, make life better; there are other elements which if added to one's experience, make life worse. But what remains when these are set aside is not merely neutral: it is emphatically positive. Therefore life is worth living even when the bad elements of experience are plentiful, and the good ones too meager to outweigh the bad ones on their own. The additional positive weight is supplied by experience itself, rather than by any of its consequences." 'Death' (essay), Thomas Nagel, CUP, 1979 http://dbanach.com/death.htm Note that the paragraph in the earlier 1970 version of the essay published in Nous; Death Author(s): Thomas Nagel Source: Noûs, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Feb ...
static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/1011404/27295252/.../Nagel_Death.pdf?token... https://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/maydede/mind/Nagel_Death.pdf ends at "perhaps outweigh them."
Pyka, Marek (2005). "Thomas Nagel on Mind, Morality, and Political Theory". American Journal of Theology & Philosophy. 26 (1/2): 85–95. ISSN0194-3448. JSTOR27944340.
