Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly FalseOxford University Press, 29 aug 2012 - 224 pagina's The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility. |
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Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is ... Thomas Nagel Gedeeltelijke weergave - 2012 |
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is ... Thomas Nagel Gedeeltelijke weergave - 2012 |
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is ... Thomas Nagel Geen voorbeeld beschikbaar - 2012 |
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alternative Alvin Plantinga answer antireductionism appearance of consciousness assumption basic behavior believe biological brain causal complex conception conscious organisms creatures Darwinian account Darwinism depend Descartes dispositions elements Elliott Sober emergent evaluative everything evolution evolutionary explanation evolutionary history evolutionary naturalism evolutionary theory existence fact faculties form of understanding genetic historical question human hypothesis ical intelligent design intentional kind laws of physics materialism materialist mental mind mind-body problem mind-independent monism moral realism motivated mutations natural order natural selection natural world naturalistic neutral monism normative objective one’s ourselves pain panpsychism perception philosophy philosophy of mind physical law physical organisms physical science physical world possible practical reason principles problem properties psychophysical reductionism purely physical reality reasons for action recognize reductionist reductive materialism responses result scientific sciousness seems sense Sharon Street subjectivism subjectivist systematic teleological theism theistic things tion transcendent true University Press value judgments value realism world picture York