Nagel, Thomas Be a Bat
<p>Jul 11, 2012 10:23 PM
note:  what's it like to be a bat... was orig posed in that form
not by Nagel but by Timothy Sprigge  (Univ of Edinburgh)..
Nagel credits Sprigge for this.
 
 
Jul 11, 2012 10:11 PM
 
Dept of Philos NYU  age 75, born 1937...
 
taught there since 1980.
 
phil of mind, polit philos , ethics.
 
1974  "What is it like to Be a Bat?"
 
nonreductionist...
 
1970  The Poss of Altruism.
 
PhD supervised by John Rawls at Harvard.
taught at Cal 63 to 66.
 
all his work is struc around a central distinction btwn subjective and objective points of view.
 
Each of us seeks a unified world view.
 
However... if this aspiration leads him to beleive there is only ONE WAY to understand our intellect. commitments,
wheter abt the external world, knowledge or what are practical and moral reasons ought to be, this lead him into
error!!!!   
 
For contingent, limited, and finite creatues no such unified world view is possible.
 
 
 
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