Thomas Nagel

1937-present · American · Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Metaphysics

If the mental is not itself merely physical, it cannot be fully explained by physical science.

When Thomas Nagel asked what it is like to be a bat, he was not being whimsical. A bat navigates by echolocation — we know the neurology — but we have no idea what the experience is like from the inside. That subjective character of consciousness is what any objective account must miss, and the 1974 essay became one of the most-cited in twentieth-century philosophy, launching the modern debate over the hard problem of consciousness.

Topics Thomas Nagel addresses

• the view from nowhere
• subjective and objective standpoints
• the subjective character of experience
• phenomenal consciousness
• anti-physicalism
• the incompletability of reconciliation
• false objectification
• agent-neutral reasons
• agent-relative reasons
• the possibility of altruism
• the hybrid theory of practical reason
• objective reason
• anti-relativism
• the self-undermining argument against subjectivism
• moral luck
• the fragmentation of value
• the absurd
• death
• sexual perversion
• war and massacre
• ruthlessness in public life
• the brain bisection paradox
• panpsychism
• the hard problem of consciousness

Questions to put to Thomas Nagel

The View from Nowhere and the Subjective-Objective Divide

• What do you mean by the view from nowhere?
• Why can't we fully reconcile subjective and objective standpoints?
• What's the difference between reduction, elimination, and annexation?
• How is your position different from both idealism and scientism?
• What's wrong with trying to achieve a complete unified view of reality?

Consciousness and What It's Like to Be a Bat

• What is it like to be a bat, and why does that matter?
• What do you mean by the subjective character of experience?
• Why can't physicalism capture what consciousness is really like?
• How is your view different from Cartesian dualism about mind and body?
• What would a future theory of consciousness need to include?
• Does your bat argument apply to all conscious creatures or just some?

Practical Reason and the Possibility of Altruism

• What's the difference between agent-relative and agent-neutral reasons?
• How do you argue that egoism is actually irrational?
• Why should I care about other people's welfare from a rational standpoint?
• How do personal projects and impartial morality fit together in your view?
• Is your argument for altruism a Kantian transcendental derivation?

Reason, Relativism, and The Last Word

• How is subjectivism about reason self-undermining?
• What do you mean when you say reason has the last word?
• Are logical and mathematical truths really culturally relative?
• How do you respond to someone who says moral truth is just cultural perspective?
• Can there be a standpoint outside reason from which to judge reason itself?

Death, Absurdity, and Moral Luck

• Why is death bad if we won't be around to experience being dead?
• What makes human life absurd in your view?
• How can we be morally responsible when so much depends on luck?
• What's the difference between your view on moral luck and Bernard Williams's?
• Can values genuinely conflict without one being the supreme value?

Mind and Cosmos: Beyond Neo-Darwinian Materialism

• Why do you think the materialist neo-Darwinian worldview is almost certainly false?
• What can't evolutionary theory explain about consciousness and cognition?
• What do you mean by teleological natural laws?
• How is your view different from Intelligent Design?
• Why did Mind and Cosmos provoke such strong reactions from other philosophers?
• What would a non-materialist science of nature actually look like?

Converse with Thomas Nagel on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Thomas Nagel's own writing, cited to the page.