Monday, August 19, 2013

The Core of Thomas Nagel's "Mind and Cosmos"

A friend sent me a link to a summary of Thomas Nagel's book, Mind and Cosmos, Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False , by Nagel himself.  It's short and to the point and should help remove misunderstandings and clarify the issues.
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4 comments:

  1. MarcAugust 27, 2013 at 9:50 AM

    Hello Bilbo.

    I believe that Thomas Nagel's famous thought experiment about a the experience of a bat remains one of the strongest reason for rejecting materialism:


    http://lotharlorraine.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/on-the-feeling-of-a-lonesome-bat-von-den-gefuhlen-eines-einsamen-fledermauses-des-sentiments-dune-chauve-souris-solitaire/


    I'd love to lear your thoughts on that!


    Greetings from continental Europe.

    Lothars Sohn – Lothar’s son
    http://lotharlorraine.wordpress.com

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  2. BilboAugust 28, 2013 at 7:14 AM

    Hi Lothar,

    I'm ashamed to say that I've never read that most famous essay by Nagel. But I promise to read it soon.

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  3. BilboSeptember 1, 2013 at 6:36 PM

    Hi Lothar,

    I can now say that I've read Nagel's "What is it like to be a Bat."

    Nagel doesn't think his essay refutes materialism (or physicalism). But he thinks it makes us realize that if materialism is true, then we do not understand what materialism is.

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  4. BilboSeptember 1, 2013 at 6:37 PM

    And I'll add that one can see in this essay Nagel's beginning move toward an Aristotelian view of the world.

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