Talk:Thomas Nagel

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Expansion

This article could really do with some discussion about his other work, such as "The view from nowhere", and "The possibility of Altruism". - Alex Gregory 26/10/05

This is one of the more interesting philosophers living. Someone really ought to expand and improve this article. I would do it myself, except that I'm certainly not up to the task. Hopefully, at some near date, this article will be as good and as comprehensive as some of the others on contemporary leading philosophers, like Searle, Putnam and Dennett.

I agree with both of the above. I recently expanded the article, but it could still use some a lot more expansion, especially on his views outside the philosophy of mind. I'm more familiar with his views in the philosophy of mind, as opposed to ethics, so I am not best suited to contribute in that department. -- Jaymay 06:19, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think it'll be nice to add to the article how to pronouce his name. I am Israely philosophy grad student, and I (and my colleages) are not sure - is the 'g' in Nagel like in 'bagel' or 'angel'? and is the 'a' like 'table' or like 'Amish'. For, after all, he was not born in an english-speaking country. Doombir 17:58, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Errors

There is an error here: Nagel received an Oxford BPhil in Philosophy. BPhil is a famous master's level degree at Oxford, NOT just another bachelor's degree. Department of Philosophy is the only dpt. at Oxford that stil holds on to this old style, although the meaning of BPhil has changed elsewhere in Europe.

It's not true that Dennett thinks that the consciousness is an illusion, that's a huge misunderstanding! I think it's safer just to delete the sentence about Dennett because all discussion over Dennett's theory should go into his own entry.

The sentence about Dennett wasn't really necessary anyway, so I deleted it. This is an article about Nagel and his views, not a survey article about consciousness and so on. -- Jaymay 06:19, 1 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's like the 'g' in 'bagel' 71.116.79.36 09:36, 26 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How is it possible that his family is Jewish yet he is not described as being Jewish himself? If he has biologically Jewish parents, then he is Jewish.

Miscellaneous

I just italicized all of book titles in this article.

His classes are really boring even though he is a genius?

Atheist?

Is it accurate to list Nagel as an atheist? If so, please cite a source. The anti-reductuinalist/quasi-anti-materialist/quasi-dualist view (or, in other words, that "consciousness and subjective experience cannot be reduced to brain activity") he takes up in "What Is it Like to Be a Bat?" seems, in my mind (pun sort of intended) to imply otherwise. Ejectgoose 23:11, 4 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think his views on the Philosophy of Mind are irrelevant to his theistic beliefs; I cannot think of a single time in his papers that he mentions God, and indeed dualism is not a theological belief necessarily (and indeed Nagel is not a dualist). Seeing as we have no reference either way, though, let us not mention anything about his religious beliefs. Batmanand | Talk 00:19, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

If anyone is still curious about sources: http://www.interdisciplines.org/secularism/papers/1/10#_10 and http://www.interdisciplines.org/secularism/papers/1/10/2#_10 . DeepBlackWater 17:29, 1 Nov 2007 (EST)