“Even if life as a whole is meaningless, perhaps that's nothing to worry about. Perhaps we can recognise it and just go… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
If life is not real, life is not earnest, and the grave is its goal, perhaps it's ridiculous t otake ourselves so… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
The more details we learn about the chemical basis of life and the intricacy of the genetic code, the more unbelievable the… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
equally real at all stages of his life; specifically, the fact that a particular stage is present cannot be regarded as conferring… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
If we tried to rely entirely on reason, and pressed it hard, our lives and beliefs would collapse - a form of… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
If sub specie aeternitatis [from eternity's point of view] there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that does not… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
The point is... to live one's life in the full complexity of what one is, which is something much darker, more contradictory,… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Everything, living or not, is constituted from elements having a nature that is both physical and nonphysical--that is, capable of combining into… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
“The existence of consciousness is both one of the most familiar and one of the most astounding things about the world. No… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
“In either case, natural teleology would mean that the universe is rationally governed in more than one way—not only through the universal… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
“Some form of natural teleology, a type of explanation whose intelligibility I briefly defended in the last chapter, would be an alternative… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
“Are there any alternatives? Well, there is the hypothesis that this universe is not unique, but that all possible universes exist, and… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
every subjective phenomenon is essentially connected with a single point of view, and it seems inevitable that an objective, physical theory will abandon that… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
Reason is universal because no attempted challenge to its results can avoid appealing to reason in the end-by claiming, for example, that what was… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
“A comprehensively reductive conception is favored by the belief that the propensity for the development of organisms with a subjective view must have been… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
It isn't just that I don't believe in God, and naturally, hope there is no God. I don't want there to be a God;… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
To look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single theory of… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
“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,… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
Common sense doesn't have the last word in ethics or anywhere else, but it has, as J. L. Austin said about ordinary language, the… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
“I am drawn to a fourth alternative, natural teleology, or teleological bias, as an account of the existence of the biological possibilities on which… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
“The existence of consciousness is both one of the most familiar and one of the most astounding things about the world. No conception of… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
“Are there any alternatives? Well, there is the hypothesis that this universe is not unique, but that all possible universes exist, and we find… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
If we tried to rely entirely on reason, and pressed it hard, our lives and beliefs would collapse - a form of madness that… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
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… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share
![“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.” quote by Thomas Nagel](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/c4f/thomas-nagel-9440_absurd_if-sub-specie-aeternitatis-from-eternity_2095998.jpg)
