"It is prima facie highly implausible that life……" — Thomas Nagel
"It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true."
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Thomas Nagel
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42 Quotes by Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel has 42 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems hopeless.
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Reason is universal because no attempted challenge to its results can avoid appealing to reason in the end-by claiming, for…
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I conceive ethics as a branch of psychology.
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equally real at all stages of his life; specifically, the fact that a particular stage is present cannot be regarded…
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To look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for…
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A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible.
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A person may be greedy, envious, cowardly, cold, ungenerous, unkind, vain, or conceited, but behave perfectly by a monumental act…
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The inclusion of consequences in the conception of what we have done is an acknowledgement that we are parts of…
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Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip…
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The external view [of agency] forces itself on us at the same time that we resist it. One way this…
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Common sense doesn't have the last word in ethics or anywhere else, but it has, as J. L. Austin said…
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There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality.
See all 42 quotes by Thomas Nagel »
More Abandon Quotes
This quote is filed under Abandon Quotes,
one of 715 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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If I can procure three hundred good substantial names of persons, or bodies, or institutions, I cannot fail to do…
— John James Audubon
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If Christ Jesus dwells in a man as his friend and noble leader, that man can endure all things, for…
— Teresa of Avila
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The people who abandon Jihad fall a victim to humility and degradation.
— Abu Bakr
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When you are portraying somebody that has a very specific emotional weight, you feel like you're really starting to abandon…
— Javier Bardem
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If Republicans are aiming for the heart, for compassion, the last thing they should do is abandon the sanctity of…
— Gary Bauer
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More and more political analysts and weak-kneed politicians are advising the historically pro-life Republican Party to abandon its pro-life stance…
— Gary Bauer
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Sex pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the…
— Simone de Beauvoir
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The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to…
— Napoleon Bonaparte
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The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration,…
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market system.
— George W. Bush
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I'm not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign…
— David Byrne
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To abandon oneself to principles is really to die - and to die for an impossible love which is the…
— Albert Camus
See all 715 Abandon Quotes »