Thomas Nagel Reality
hat do we actually know? Am I just in my own world? Are the people I’m seeing a figment of my imagination or are they real? In this chapter, Thomas Nagel talks about the perception of reality, “How do you know anything?”. How can we be sure that what we are seeing is reality? Each person has a different view on whether or not this is possible. As human beings we have the tendency to question things based on ours senses, these are called our subjective experiences. We are able to see, touch, hear, and smell things differently and because of this each person may have a different perception about the same situation, but is this all real? Could it be that we are just our mind? That we do not even have a body or a brain? Nagel introduces us to
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The next day the person looked in the mirror and regretted eating the piece of chocolate cake (Nagel, page 48). This is a common occurrence in people that are wanting to lose weight or be on a diet. They will eat something that is fattening to satisfy their craving but then later feel bad about it. When you are in the moment all you want is to each that chocolate cake without regrets. In the end you are regretting your choice because of the impulse. Some things that happen in your everyday lives are determined in advance. For example, the sun rising every morning or the moon rising every night are something we can count on everyday (Nagel, page 49). Determinism is defined as all of your events being caused by things that happened before them, making it inevitable (Nagel, page 51). What we do is insistent to our choices, wants, and needs but before our choice, our brains somehow are automatically making the choice. Determinism undermines moral responsibility,
In this chapter he gives an example of someone stealing all your CD’s. This was determined by earlier circumstances in life and that is what led him to do what he did. He did something wrong but he was determined to do so. According to Nagel, “It does not make sense to blame someone for doing what it was impossible for him not to do.” There was no way to stop him and there is no reason to reprimand him if it was going to happen no matter
The next day the person looked in the mirror and regretted eating the piece of chocolate cake (Nagel, page 48). This is a common occurrence in people that are wanting to lose weight or be on a diet. They will eat something that is fattening to satisfy their craving but then later feel bad about it. When you are in the moment all you want is to each that chocolate cake without regrets. In the end you are regretting your choice because of the impulse. Some things that happen in your everyday lives are determined in advance. For example, the sun rising every morning or the moon rising every night are something we can count on everyday (Nagel, page 49). Determinism is defined as all of your events being caused by things that happened before them, making it inevitable (Nagel, page 51). What we do is insistent to our choices, wants, and needs but before our choice, our brains somehow are automatically making the choice. Determinism undermines moral responsibility,
In this chapter he gives an example of someone stealing all your CD’s. This was determined by earlier circumstances in life and that is what led him to do what he did. He did something wrong but he was determined to do so. According to Nagel, “It does not make sense to blame someone for doing what it was impossible for him not to do.” There was no way to stop him and there is no reason to reprimand him if it was going to happen no matter