Born 1937
Thomas Nagel
Birth date 4 July 1937 is a matter of public record. This page does not state a death date.
Nagel was born in Belgrade in 1937 and has taught philosophy at New York University. “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” (1974) argues that a physical account, however complete in its own terms, leaves out the subjective character of experience. The View from Nowhere (1986) extends the tension between subjective and objective standpoints into knowledge, freedom, ethics, and the meaning of life. The Mortal Questions essay “Moral Luck” (1979) is a separate and important pressure on simple pictures of responsibility.
Also in the atlas
- Subjective and objective standpoints
- What experience is like
- Moral luck
Reading, not a syllabus ranking
- “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” (1974) — The subjective character of experience.
- Mortal Questions (1979) — Includes “Moral Luck” and essays on death and the absurd.
- The View from Nowhere (1986) — Subjective and objective standpoints across several philosophical problems.
Questions for reflection
- If an objective description leaves out what an experience is like, is that a fact about us or a fact about the world?
Nagel is the atlas’s main modern source for the explanatory gap. He is not an idealist by default, and Mind and Cosmos (2012) is a later and contested book that this short page does not summarize.