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Mind And Cosmos: Why The Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception Of Nature Is Almost Certainly False (2012)

by Thomas Nagel(Favorite Author)

3.51 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0199919755 (ISBN13: 9780199919758)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Oxford University Press, USA

review 1: Among many of the so called "Skeptics" and "Free-thinkers", there is little or no skepticism when it comes to their own orthodox naturalistic dogma, the materialistic presuppositions are sacrosanct. If anyone within their camp actually dares to think freely and question any materialist Neo-Darwinian assumptions and metaphysical claims, they are anathema. Nagel is an atheist who actually IS a skeptical free-thinker and of course (as is obvious from the reviews) he is now condemned as heretic by the mainstream "free-thinking" bigoted fundamentalists. Nagel by not toeing the party line, is now stupid and senile; to be mocked, ridiculed and dismissed. The reaction to Nagel questioning cherished materialistic assumptions, can be compared to the reaction of other Muslims to one... more of their own who was critical of the Koren or who questioned whether Mohammad was a good role model. I personally didn't agree with everything Nagel wrote, and it was far to short of a work to cover in much depth the multitude of problems within the materialistic world-view, but nevertheless, I appreciate that Negal was willing to be intellectually honest, though he belongs to a community who simply has no tolerance for anyone who verges from the shared naturalistic orthodoxy. I also respect Negal for being willing to float back into the realm of murky mystery, instead of settling for the warm security of the narrow, sacred, neat and tidy materialist box where everything is explained and whatever doesn't fit is explained away.
review 2: Nagel's argument is that if you believe that that we make decisions, and that consciousness truly exists as an actual entity in a non-epiphenomenal way, then you probably believe that consciousness has non-materialistic aspects. And in that case, it is really, really difficult to argue that a purely materialistic process, such as neo-darwinian natural selection, is likely to produce an extra-materialistic phenomenon, such as consciousness. It seems like a sound argument to me.Nagel's non-theistic solution is that the cosmos is "tilted" in some as-yet unknown way as to make the emergence of consciousness likely. less

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