Thomas Nagel
We can never know what it is like to be a bat; subjective experience cannot be captured by any objective description.
Placement
What is it like to be a bat? Subjective experience eludes objective description.
Key ideas
- Subjective character of experience
- The view from nowhere
Teachers: John Rawls
Influence
Influenced by 2
Ludwig Wittgenstein
influenced by
Nagel met Wittgenstein’s later philosophy at Cornell through Norman Malcolm, Wittgenstein’s student and friend, whose letter introduced him to Anscombe at Oxford in 1958. T. Nagel, review essay on Anscombe, Foot, Midgley and Murdoch, London Review of Books (2022); N. Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir (1958)
Evidence: AI draft
Ludwig Wittgenstein › 1889–1951
John Rawls studied with
studied with
Nagel took his PhD at Harvard in 1963 under Rawls with a dissertation on altruism, the theme of his The Possibility of Altruism (1970). Mathematics Genealogy Project, entry T. Nagel (Harvard 1963)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
John Rawls › 1921–2002
Influenced 1
David Chalmers
influenced
Chalmers defined consciousness with Nagel’s phrase that there is ‘something it is like’ to be a subject and made explaining it the ‘hard problem’ (1995). D. J. Chalmers, “Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness”, Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (1995); The Conscious Mind (1996); T. Nagel, “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”, Philosophical Review 83 (1974)
Evidence: AI draft
David Chalmers › b. 1966
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Daniel Dennett
criticised by
Dennett denied Nagel’s claim that subjective experience escapes objective science: much about what it is like to be a bat can be learned (Consciousness Explained, 1991). D. C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained (1991), ch. 14; T. Nagel, “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?”, Philosophical Review 83 (1974); Nagel’s reply: “Is Consciousness an Illusion?”, New York Review of Books, 9 March 2017
Evidence: AI draft
Daniel Dennett › 1942–2024
Works
The subjective character of experience eludes physicalism.
How can subjective and objective standpoints be reconciled?
Position
Nagel’s central theme is the tension between the subjective and the objective standpoint. In “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” he argued that conscious experience has a subjective character – there is something it is like to be a bat orienting itself by echolocation – that no objective physical description can capture. Physicalism may be true, but we do not yet understand how it could be. In The View from Nowhere he extended this tension to ethics, freedom and the meaning of life: we can step back and see ourselves from outside, yet never fully leave our own perspective. In Mind and Cosmos he controversially questioned whether neo-Darwinian materialism can explain mind at all. His essays helped revive consciousness as a central problem.
Life & context
Nagel was born in Belgrade in 1937 and came to the United States as a child. He studied at Cornell, Oxford and Harvard, where he wrote his dissertation under John Rawls. After teaching at Berkeley and Princeton he moved to New York University in 1980. He is known for clear essays that make deep questions accessible to non-specialists.
Further main works
- The Possibility of Altruism (1970)
- Mortal Questions (1979)
- Mind and Cosmos (2012)
Appears in
- Journey ‘The Riddle of Consciousness’ · Stop 7 of 10
- Debate ‘Can Machines Think or Feel?’
- Debate ‘What Is Consciousness?’
- Debate ‘A Right to Die? Assisted Dying’
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