USUPhilosophy

Thomas Nagel’s latest book, Mind & Cosmos, is getting a fair bit of attention, probably because Nagel is “out of step” with the dominant trend in Anglo-American philosophy toward naturalism. Many of our readers may know Nagel as the “bat guy”, or the guy who argued that even if you could know all of the neurological facts about a bat, you still would be no closer to know what it is like to be a bat (hence, physicalism is false). In this book, he’s arguing that materialism and Darwinism just cannot answer all of the questions we find interesting. Brian Leiter and Michael Weisberg criticize Nagel’s book here.

Time for a poll. What do you believe? Or: what options am I missing?

It turns out numbers are not real (I find this incredible!) and it is always better to know the truth, despite some very compelling arguments given for the contrary. The oracle is inscrutable.

In other news, I will now ask bowlers to chip in $5 to offset the cost of games and shoes. It’s still a terrific deal for philosophical enlightenment!

Bowling tonight, Logan Lanes, 7 p.m.

From our colleagues in the business school —

We invite faculty and students to a seminar on leadership, trust, ethics, and markets.
Friday, September 28
3:00 p.m.
9th Floor, Business Building

The Department of Economics and Finance and the Institute of Political Economy have invited Professor David Rose, one of the preeminent scholars on the moral foundations of economic behavior, to visit the Huntsman School on September 28th and 29th. Dr. Rose is a Professor of Economics at University of Missouri and author of the recently published Oxford Press book titled the Moral Foundation of Economic Behavior. Professor Rose will be on campus to talk about how principles of trust promote a prosperous society.