Consciousness is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
To look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
A person may be greedy, envious, cowardly, cold, ungenerous, unkind, vain, or conceited, but behave perfectly by a monumental act of 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
fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip on the… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Eventually, I believe, current attempts to understand the mind by analogy with man-made computers that can perform superbly some of the same… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
The inclusion of consequences in the conception of what we have done is an acknowledgement that we are parts of the world,… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
The external view [of agency] forces itself on us at the same time that we resist it. One way this occurs is… — 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
Common sense doesn't have the last word in ethics or anywhere else, but it has, as J. L. Austin said about ordinary… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
If a psychological Maxwell devises a general theory of mind, he may make it possible for a psychological Einstein to follow with… — 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
![“The external view [of agency] forces itself on us at the same time that we resist it. One way this occurs is through the gradual erosion of what we do by the subtraction of what happens.” quote by Thomas Nagel](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/498/thomas-nagel-9440_action_the-external-view-of-agency-forces-itsel_2767253.jpg)
