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it is like to be a human being, or a bat, or a Martian, these appear. to be facts that embody a particular point of view. II am not adverting here to the alleged privacy of experience to its possessor. The point of view in question is not one accessi- ble only to a single individual. Rather it is a type.
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What Is It Like to Be a Bat? Thomas Nagel argues that while a human might be able to imagine what it is like to be a bat by taking "the bat's point of view", it would still be impossible "to know what it is like for a bat to be a bat." ( Townsend's big-eared bat pictured ).
What Is It Like to Be A Bat? by Thomas Nagel (1974) Analogies—for example, 'Red is like the sound of a trumpet'—are of little use. That should be clear to anyone who has both heard a trumpet and seen red. Conscious experience is a widespread phenomenon. It occurs at many levels of animal life, though we cannot be sure of its presence in the
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Summary: “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” In his essay “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” American philosopher Thomas Nagel critiques theories of the mind.
Mar 21, 2024 · This book is a fiftieth anniversary republication of Thomas Nagel’s “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?,” a classic in the philosophy of mind. Through its argument for the irreducible subjectivity of consciousness, it played an essential role in making the study of consciousness a central part of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience.
What Is It Like to Be a Bat? Thomas Nagel The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83, No. 4. (Oct., 1974), pp. 435-450. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8108%28197410%2983%3A4%3C435%3AWIILTB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y The Philosophical Review is currently published by Cornell University.
Thomas Nagel argues that there are facts about conscious experience that are subjective and can only be known from that subjective perspective. Even if we know all the objective facts about bats, we may not actually know what it would really be like to be a bat.
