Once we have taken the backward step to an abstract view of our whole system of beliefs, evidence, and justification, and seen that it works only, despite its pretensions, by taking the world largely for granted, we are not in… — Thomas Nagel Copy Share Image
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 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
