- Published: December 30, 2021
- Updated: December 30, 2021
- University / College: George Washington University
- Level: Secondary School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 14
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A BAT BY THOMAS NAGEL In the article, Nagel believes among all the current philosophical views to shed life on consciousness; reductionism is the worse. Nagel’s argument, then, is that although science seems capable of objectively describing things in our societal setup it does so in a way that no point of view is mainly implied. According to the article science, does all these in bringing an ineffable subjective experience. Nagel makes a valuable argument when he states it almost impossible understanding another organisms perspective, for instance, a bat (Nagel, 111). Furthermore, if one is particularly good at a thing that another species is capable of doing then they always have a partial and at the same time incomplete understanding.
Reductionism is the philosophical is a point of view that a complex system is but the sum of its parts. Nagel stated that any reductionist program should be based on critical analysis of what is to be reduced. In his view, if something is purposely left out then, the problem will be falsely posed. Likewise, to base the defense of materialism on a given analysis of mental facts that explicitly neglects subjective character (Horst, 17). Nagel at the implied physicalism isnt necessarily true. Assuming a physicalist hypothesis initiates with a faulty analysis of mind no conclusion can be true. To him, it is truer to imply that physicalism is a position one cannot understand many lacks conception of its truthfulness (Sachse, 78). Nagel then uses the illustration that mental states area given states of the body while mental events are physical events. Rats are used to give the simplest of analysis since their experience is unknown to many (Nagel, 61).
Work cited
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Horst, Steven W. Beyond Reduction: Philosophy of Mind and Post-Reductionist Philosophy of Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Internet resource.
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Nagel, Thomas. Mortal Questions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Print.
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Sachse, Christian. Reductionism in the Philosophy of Science. Frankfurt: Ontos, 2007. Print.
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