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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Consciousness is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable. — 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
![“The external view [of agency] forces itself on us at…” quote by Thomas Nagel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/498/thomas-nagel-9440_action_the-external-view-of-agency-forces-itsel_2767253.jpg)
