The existence of consciousness is both one of the most familiar and one of the most astounding things about the world. No conception of the natural order that does not reveal it as something to be expected can aspire even to the outline of completeness. And if physical science, whatever it may have to say about the origin of life, leaves us necessarily in the dark about consciousness, that shows that it cannot provide the basic form of intelligibility for this world. There must be a very different way in which t hings as they are make sense, and that includes the physical world, since the problem cannot be quarantined in the mind.

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About Thomas Nagel

Thomas Nagel was a contemporary American philosopher. Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 until his retirement in 2016. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Philosophy — Deep thoughts on existence, knowledge, and the nature of reality
  • Science — Discovery, inquiry, and the wonders of the natural world

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