Thomas Nagel Quotes on Mind
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 mind, 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:
“The mind-body problem is not just a local problem about consciousness; it is a problem about the world.”
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Attributed to Thomas Nagel:
“Reason has a proper authority over the will, even when it conflicts with our private interests.”
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Attributed to Thomas Nagel:
“Materialism, taken as a complete account of nature, is almost certainly false.”
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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.