I encourage everyone to at least attempt to take Philosophy while at college. It's a good way to educate yourself in the things of the world you can't quite put your finger on. The books that accompany it are also filled with "delightfully" theoretical quotes that only a philosophy major can love, and a non major can at least appreciate. Philosophy not only stretches your mind but also makes you feel like life isn't even real! Well, who doesn't love that to finish off their school day? So, here are the ten least inspiring quotes (divided by subject) from my philosophy book What Does it All Mean? by Thomas Nagel.
1. On Those Around You
"How do you even know that your friend is conscious? How do you know that there are any minds at all besides your own?" and "So how do you know that's now what they are? How do you know that the beings around you aren't all mindless robots?" (both are within a few lines of each other on page 23)
2. On the Assumption Our Lives Exist
"We may have grounds, within the overall system of our beliefs about the world, for more particular beliefs about the existence of particular things: like a mouse in the breadbox, for example. But that is different. It assumes the existence of the external world" (pg 18)
3. On Non-sentient Objects
"How do you know that when you cut a branch off a tree it doesn't hurt the tree - only it can't express its pain because it can't move?" (pg 25)
4. On People Who Wrong You
"Could you still hold him responsible for such low grade behavior? Or would it be more reasonable to regard him as a kind of natural disaster - as if your records had been eaten by termites?" (pg 54)
5. On Death
"Everybody dies" (pg 87)
6. On The Existence of An Afterlife
"Others believe they will cease to exist - that the self is snuffed out when they body dies" (pg 87)
7.On If Anything Matters
"Perhaps you have had the thought that nothing really matters, because in two hundred years we'll all be dead" (pg 95)
8.On The Lasting Nature of Our Accomplishments
"Even if you produce a great work of literature which continues to be read thousands of years from now, eventually the solar system will cool or the universe will wind down or collapse, and all race of your efforts will vanish" (pg 95)
9.On Self Worth
"And after you have gone out of existence, it won't matter that you did exist. Of course your existence matters to other people - your parents and others who care about you - but taken as a whole, their lives have no point either, so it ultimately doesn't matter that you matter to them" (pg 96)
10. On the Meaning of Life
"Life may be not only meaningless but absurd" (pg 101)
