Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel

Thomas Nagel Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsActionEthicsMoralPsychologyWorldConsciousnessUniverseBelieveBeliefMindObjectivesProblemTheoryViewsAccountsConsciousFormKnowsLife Is

Famous Thomas Nagel Quotes

“I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.”

PeopleKnowsWantBelieveWellsMadeGodFactsUniverseBeliefReligiousAtheismIntelligentDon't BelieveAtheistBelieverBeing TrueBelieve In GodThere Is No GodUneasy
Author:Thomas Nagel
Create image

“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 individually and intersubjectively. It was originally a biological evolutionary process, and in our species it has become a collective cultural process as well. Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself.”

WorldWellsFormLife IsUniverseProcessConsciousnessOur LivesParticularBecomingCreaturesWake UpSpeciesObjectivesCollectivesWakingExpansionCognitiveLengthy
Author:Thomas Nagel
Create image

“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, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively.”

ChoicesUniverseThreeActingConsciousnessPathCapableConsciousCrowds
Book:Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
Create image

“Humans are addicted to the hope for a final reckoning, but intellectual humility requires that we resist the temptation to assume that tools of the kind we now have are in principle sufficient to understand the universe as a whole.”

HumansKindWholeUniversePrinciplesHumilityIntellectualToolsAssumingFinalsTemptationSufficientReckoningIntellectual Humility
Book:Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
Create image