Thomas Nagel is a famous American philosopher. The researcher made a significant contribution to the study of ethics and altruism. In addition, he is a professor at New York University of Philosophy and Law, his teaching experience is more than 40 years. Nagel opposed the neo-Darwinist view of the emergence of consciousness, and also strongly criticized the simplified approach of contemporaries to philosophy.
Early biography
Thomas Nagel was born on July 4, 1937 in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. His parents were Jews. During the years of Nazi rule, they fled from Germany, trying to find political refuge. In 1939, the family moved to New York, where young Thomas spent his entire childhood.
After leaving school, Nagel entered Cornell University at the Faculty of Philosophy, and in 1958 he graduated with honors. It was here that he first became acquainted with the philosophy of the famous Austrian logician Ludwig Wittgenstein, which had a great influence on him. Then Thomas decided to continue his studies at Oxford University. Thanks to the prestigious Fulbright scholarship, he managed to get an education completely free of charge. In 1963, a young researcher successfully defended his thesis at Harvard University, after which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. At the same time, he became friends with a prominent analyst John Rawls, who later became known as "the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century."
From 1963 to 1966, Nagel taught at the University of California and Princeton, where he taught such famous researchers as Susan Wolf, Shelley Kagan and Samuel Scheffler. In the future, they all received world fame and recognition from the scientific community.
A few years later, Thomas became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a corresponding member of the British Academy. In 2006, he was elected Honorary Chairman of the American Philosophical Society. For his scientific research, he was awarded the Rolf Shock Prize and an honorary diploma from the University of Oxford.
Career
Nagel published his first philosophical study at age 20. During his career, he has written more than a hundred scientific articles for various journals. Thomas still sincerely believes that it is impossible to find the only true view of the world. In his works it is said that there are a huge number of different ways and methods to understand our practical and moral principles. In addition, the researcher constantly convinced his opponents that common sense is just an invention of mankind, because in fact each representative of society has a special type of thinking. In his work, "What is it like to be a bat?" Thomas explained that objective science is not able to help people fully know themselves, since the whole process of self-knowledge, in fact, is built on a subjective approach.
In addition, the philosopher has repeatedly mentioned that science still knows almost nothing about man. However, in his writings he constantly mentions that in the future there will be plausible knowledge of the mind, which will allow individuals to recognize what lies at the basis of their mental and physical properties.
The desire to present human nature as a composite and structured system has accompanied the rationalist for many years. So, for example, at one of the scientific conferences, he criticized the direction of physicalism, the followers of which identified the functions of the brain and consciousness. Thomas, however, was convinced that subjectivity was the main feature of consciousness; therefore, no scientist can describe the mental work of an individual using objective positions. For such a large-scale study, it is always necessary to take individual personality traits as a basis. Only in this way, in his opinion, can one obtain evidence about the psychophysiological state of an individual.
At the same time, Thomas Nagel had rather interesting views on human evolution. He believed that materialistic philosophers were unable to explain the laws by which consciousness works. According to his worldview, the mind has always accompanied man, therefore, is a natural component. Based on a theoretical understanding, Thomas was able to prove that the standard approach to the emergence of life has lost its relevance. Nagel has always advocated that life is not a series of accidents, but a consistent process of human development. His views were shared by such prominent defenders of rational meaning as Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer and David Berlinsky.
