A gap need not be permanent
Physicalists may accept that current concepts fail to capture experience while denying that consciousness is irreducibly non-physical.
Contemporary philosophy · 1937–
Nagel
Nagel makes the first-person point of view philosophically unavoidable, asking what an objective account leaves out when there is something it is like to be a subject.
Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher whose work ranges across consciousness, ethics, political theory, death and the possibility of an objective standpoint. His bat argument became a central challenge to reductive physical accounts of experience.
MindKnowledgeEthics
The question he enters
The question Nagel enters
Could a complete objective science of a bat still leave out what the bat's world is like for the bat?
The central move
Do not erase the point of view
Nagel argues that conscious experience has an essentially subjective character. More objective knowledge can strip away features tied to a particular standpoint, but in the case of consciousness the standpoint is part of what must be explained rather than merely a distortion to be removed.
Key ideas
Terms that carry the argument.
- What it is like
- The subjective character present when there is something it feels like for an organism to have an experience.
- Subjective point of view
- The perspective belonging to a conscious subject that cannot simply be replaced by third-person description.
- View from nowhere
- The aspiration to move beyond a personal standpoint towards increasing objectivity while recognising its limits.
- Moral luck
- The problem that moral judgement depends on outcomes and circumstances beyond an agent's control.
Where the view strains
Objections and limits.
Subjectivity can become insulated
If a point of view is inaccessible in principle, it becomes difficult to say what evidence could support claims about another creature's experience.
Sources and routes
Read the work. Follow the argument.
Primary texts
Where to meet the position.
- Oxford AcademicWhat Is It Like to Be a Bat?WebThe classic argument that objective information may leave out the subjective character of experience.Oxford University Press 50th-anniversary book edition, 2024. · Publisher abstract and chapter access; full access may require purchase or subscription. Checked Aug 2026.
- Open LibraryThe View from NowhereWebAn exploration of the tension between personal standpoints and objective understanding.Work-level library catalogue record for The View from Nowhere; select a listed edition on the record. · Bibliographic record with edition, library-location, borrowing or preview links where available; this row is bibliographic or sample-only unless the selected edition states otherwise. Checked Aug 2026.
- Open LibraryMortal QuestionsWebEssays on death, absurdity, moral luck, consciousness and equality.Work-level library catalogue record for Mortal questions; select a listed edition on the record. · Bibliographic record with edition, library-location, borrowing or preview links where available; this row is bibliographic or sample-only unless the selected edition states otherwise. Checked Aug 2026.
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