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Consciousness is what makes the mind-body problem really intractable.
Thomas Nagel
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Perhaps the belief in God is the belief that the universe is intelligible, but not to us.
Thomas Nagel
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If you want the truth rather than merely something to say, you will have a good deal less to say.
Thomas Nagel
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A theory of motivation is defective if it renders intelligible behaviour which is not intelligible.
Thomas Nagel
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I'm not sure I understand how responsibility for our choices makes sense if they are not determined.
Thomas Nagel
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Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
Thomas Nagel
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Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.
Thomas Nagel
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Everyone is entitled to commit murder in the imagination once in a while, not to mention lesser infractions.
Thomas Nagel
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Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems hopeless.
Thomas Nagel
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Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.
Thomas Nagel
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Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.
Thomas Nagel
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If I thought that everything I did was determined by my circumstancse and my psychological condition, I woudl feel trapped.
Thomas Nagel
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If life is not real, life is not earnest, and the grave is its goal, perhaps it's ridiculous t otake ourselves so seriously.
Thomas Nagel
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The world is a strange place, and nothing but radical speculation gives us a hope of coming up with any candidates for the truth.
Thomas Nagel
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A person may be greedy, envious, cowardly, cold, ungenerous, unkind, vain, or conceited, but behave perfectly by a monumental act of the will.
Thomas Nagel
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To look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single theory of how to decide what to believe.
Thomas Nagel
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Materialism is incomplete even as a theory of the physical world, since the physical world includes conscious organisms among its most striking occupants.
Thomas Nagel
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It isn't just that I don't believe in God.... It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.
Thomas Nagel
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Any reductionist program has to be based on an analysis of what is to be reduced. If the analysis leaves something out, the problem will be falsely posed.
Thomas Nagel
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Equally real at all stages of his life; specifically, the fact that a particular stage is present cannot be regarded as conferring on it any special status.
Thomas Nagel
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The more details we learn about the chemical basis of life and the intricacy of the genetic code, the more unbelievable the standard historical account becomes
Thomas Nagel
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Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.
Thomas Nagel
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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.
Thomas Nagel
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Fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism--something it is like for the organism.
Thomas Nagel
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Every subjective phenomenon is essentially connected with a single point of view, and it seems inevitable that an objective, physical theory will abandon that point of view.
Thomas Nagel
Quote of the day
Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.
Dorothy L. Sayers
Thomas Nagel
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Born:
July 4, 1937
(age 86)
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