Thomas Nagel Quotes on Knowledge
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. This page collects quotes attributed to Thomas Nagel on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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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:
“An objective view from nowhere offers part of the truth, but only part.”
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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. -
“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.