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 CosmosWhy 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.

4 comments:

Marc said...

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

Bilbo said...

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.

Bilbo said...

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.

Bilbo said...

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