“ Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics. Thomas Nagel
“ The great cognitive shift is an expansion of consciousness from the perspectival form contained in the lives of particular creatures to an objective, world-encompassing form that exists both individua… Thomas Nagel
“ Eventually, I believe, current attempts to understand the mind by analogy with man-made computers that can perform superbly some of the same external tasks as conscious beings will be recognized as a… Thomas Nagel
“ I do not find theism any more credible than materialism as a comprehensive world view. My interest is in the territory between them. Thomas Nagel
“ If we tried to rely entirely on reason and pressed it hard, our lives and beliefs would collapse – a form of madness that may actually occur if the inertial force of taking the world and life for gran… Thomas Nagel
“ The widespread willingness to rely on thermonuclear bombs as the ultimate weapon displays a cavalier attitude toward death that has always puzzled me. My impression is that...most of the defenders of… Thomas Nagel
“ I believe the defenders of intelligent design deserve our gratitude for challenging a scientific world view that owes some of the passion displayed by its adherents precisely to the fact that it is th… Thomas Nagel
“ 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 exp… Thomas Nagel
“ Both theism and evolutionary naturalism are attempts to understand ourselves from the outside Thomas Nagel
“ The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future--though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, ar… Thomas Nagel
“ I am drawn to a fourth alternative, natural teleology, or teleological bias, as an account of the existence of the biological possibilities on which natural selection can operate. I believe that teleo… Thomas Nagel
“ The existence of conscious minds and their access to the evident truth of ethics and methematics are among the data that a theory of the world and our place in it has yet to explain. Thomas Nagel
