Thomas Nagel Quotes

Quotes about:

Belief Consciousness Ethics Psychology Reality Universe

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.

Thomas Nagel

Growing Up, Philosophy, Childhood

Thomas Nagel (1989). “The View From Nowhere”, p.12, Oxford University Press

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I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.

Thomas Nagel

God, Religious, Atheist

"The Last Word". Book by Thomas Nagel, 1997.

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Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.

Thomas Nagel

Waking, Becoming, Wake Up

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False”, p.66, Oxford University Press

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Materialism is incomplete even as a theory of the physical world, since the physical world includes conscious organisms among its most striking occupants.

Thomas Nagel

World, Materialism, Conscious

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False”, p.39, Oxford University Press

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Life may be not only meaningless but absurd.

Thomas Nagel

May, Absurd, Meaningless Life

Thomas Nagel (1987). “What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy”, p.82, Oxford University Press

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The point is... to live one's life in the full complexity of what one is, which is something much darker, more contradictory, more of a maelstrom of impulses and passions, of cruelty, ecstacy, and madness, than is apparent to the civilized being who glides on the surface and fits smoothly into the world.

Thomas Nagel

Passion, World, Maelstrom

Thomas Nagel (2010). “Secular Philosophy and the Religious Temperament: Essays 2002-2008”, p.34, Oxford University Press

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If sub specie aeternitatis [from eternity's point of view] there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that does not matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with irony instead of heroism or despair.

Thomas Nagel

Inspirational, Life, Believe

"Mortal questions". Book by Thomas Nagel, 1979.

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What is it like to be a bat? What is it like for a bat to be a bat?

Thomas Nagel

Funny, Animal, Bats

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We are an episode between two oblivions.

Thomas Nagel

Two, Oblivion, Episodes

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If you want the truth rather than merely something to say, you will have a good deal less to say.

Thomas Nagel

Want, Deals, Ifs

Thomas Nagel (1989). “The View From Nowhere”, p.9, Oxford University Press

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Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

Thomas Nagel

Interesting, Characteristics, Manifestation

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mortal Questions”, p.23, Cambridge University Press

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Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems hopeless.

Thomas Nagel

Science, Interesting, Mind

Thomas Nagel (1991). “Mortal Questions : Canto”, p.166, Cambridge University Press

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Humans are addicted to the hope for a final reckoning, but intellectual humility requires that we resist the temptation to assume that tools of the kind we now have are in principle sufficient to understand the universe as a whole.

Thomas Nagel

Humility, Temptation, Intellectual

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False”, p.10, Oxford University Press

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A person may be greedy, envious, cowardly, cold, ungenerous, unkind, vain, or conceited, but behave perfectly by a monumental act of the will.

Thomas Nagel

Conceited, Psychology, May

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mortal Questions”, p.32, Cambridge University Press

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Perhaps the belief in God is the belief that the universe is intelligible, but not to us.

Thomas Nagel

Belief, Belief In God, Universe

Thomas Nagel (1987). “What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy”, p.81, Oxford University Press

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The more details we learn about the chemical basis of life and the intricacy of the genetic code, the more unbelievable the standard historical account becomes

Thomas Nagel

Historical, Details, Chemicals

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False”, p.11, Oxford University Press

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To look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single theory of how to decide what to believe.

Thomas Nagel

Believe, Psychology, Looks

Thomas Nagel (1991). “Mortal Questions : Canto”, p.135, Cambridge University Press

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It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection.

Thomas Nagel

Together, Natural, Results

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False”, p.12, Oxford University Press

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If I thought that everything I did was determined by my circumstancse and my psychological condition, I woudl feel trapped.

Thomas Nagel

Determined, Psychological, Feels

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If life is not real, life is not earnest, and the grave is its goal, perhaps it's ridiculous t otake ourselves so seriously.

Thomas Nagel

Real, Goal, Ridiculous

Thomas Nagel (1987). “What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy”, p.82, Oxford University Press

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Eventually, I believe, current attempts to understand the mind by analogy with man-made computers that can perform superbly some of the same external tasks as conscious beings will be recognized as a gigantic waste of time.

Thomas Nagel

Believe, Men, Mind

Thomas Nagel (1989). “The View From Nowhere”, p.16, Oxford University Press

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The great cognitive shift is an expansion of consciousness from the perspectival form contained in the lives of particular creatures to an objective, world-encompassing form that exists both individually and intersubjectively. It was originally a biological evolutionary process, and in our species it has become a collective cultural process as well. Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.

Thomas Nagel

Expansion, Wake Up, World

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Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.

Thomas Nagel

Reality, Empathy, Recognition

Thomas Nagel (2016). “The Possibility of Altruism”, p.3, Princeton University Press

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It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.

Thomas Nagel

Together, Example, Alternatives

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Everything, living or not, is constituted from elements having a nature that is both physical and nonphysical - that is, capable of combining into mental wholes. So this reductive account can also be described as a form of panpsychism: all the elements of the physical world are also mental.

Thomas Nagel

Elements, World, Form

Thomas Nagel (2012). “Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False”, p.47, Oxford University Press

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Born: July 4, 1937
Occupation: Philosopher
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