He proposes that since “the grave is [life’s only] goal, perhaps it’s ridiculous to take ourselves so seriously.” It should be enough to simply take life as it comes and enjoy it as much as we can. Many want more than that. They want a reason to believe that our lives “matter from the outside.”2 That is, they want their lives to be connected to something beyond their mere pleasures and comforts, to be significant of something higher. That, Nagel says, is asking too much. Why torture ourselves?
