A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
Any reductionist program has to be based on an analysis of what is to be reduced. If the analysis leaves something out,… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
If I thought that everything I did was determined by my circumstancse and my psychological condition, I woudl feel trapped. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
If you want the truth rather than merely something to say, you will have a good deal less to say. — 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
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
Once we have taken the backward step to an abstract view of our whole system of beliefs, evidence, and justification, and seen… — 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
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
I'm not sure I understand how responsibility for our choices makes sense if they are not determined. — 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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible. — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up. — 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 language, the… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
![“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/quotes/img-quotes/c4f/thomas-nagel-9440_absurd_if-sub-specie-aeternitatis-from-eternity_2095998.jpg)
