Thomas Nagel Quotes
Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher long associated with New York University, whose work has shaped contemporary thinking in the philosophy of mind, ethics, and political philosophy. His essay What Is It Like to Be a Bat? The quotes below are attributed to Thomas Nagel, organized by topic.
Thomas Nagel on Knowledge
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“The Last Word, Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 130-131.”
In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions and religious institutions, in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking -
“Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions.”
Concealment and Exposure and Other Essays (1998). -
“Concealment and Exposure and Other Essays (1998).”
Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions. -
“Any reductionist program has to be based on an analysis of what is to be reduced. If the analysis leaves something out, the problem will be falsely posed.”
p. 167.
Thomas Nagel on Mind
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“I want to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat.”
p. 168. -
Attributed to Thomas Nagel:
“The mind-body problem is not just a local problem about consciousness; it is a problem about the world.”
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“Conceiving the Impossible and the Mind-Body Problem," Royal Institute of Philosophy annual lecture, given in London on February 18, 1998, published in Philosophy vol. 73 no. 285, July 1998, pp 337-352, Cambridge University Press, p. 337.”
I believe that there is a necessary connection in both directions between the physical and the mental, but that it cannot be discovered a priori. Opinion is strongly divided on the credibility of some kind of functionalist reductionism , and I won't go through my reasons for being on the antireductionist side of that debate. Despite significant attempts by a number of philosophers to describe the -
“Consciousness is what makes the mind–body problem really intractable.”
p. 165. -
“Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems hopeless.”
p. 166.
Thomas Nagel on Nature
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Attributed to Thomas Nagel:
“Materialism, taken as a complete account of nature, is almost certainly false.”
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“[E]very subjective phenomenon is essentially connected with a single point of view , and it seems inevitable that an objective physical theory will abandon that point of view.”
p. 167.
Thomas Nagel on Time
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“Bats … present a range of activity and a sensory apparatus so different from ours that the problem I want to pose is exceptionally vivid (though it certainly could be raised with other species). Even without the benefit of philosophical reflection, anyone who has spent some time in an enclosed space with an excited bat knows what it is to encounter a fundamentally alien form of life.”
p. 168. -
“Even if I could by gradual degrees be transformed into a bat, nothing in my present constitution enables me to imagine what the experiences of such a future stage of myself thus metamorphosed would be like. The best evidence would come from the experience of bats, if we only knew what they were like.”
p. 169.
Thomas Nagel on Truth
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Attributed to Thomas Nagel:
“An objective view from nowhere offers part of the truth, but only part.”
Thomas Nagel on Virtue
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Attributed to Thomas Nagel:
“Reason has a proper authority over the will, even when it conflicts with our private interests.”