Thomas Nagel's Mortal Questions explores some fundamental issues concerning the meaning, nature and value of human life. Questions about our attitudes to death, sexual behaviour, social inequality, war and political power are shown to lead to more obviously philosophical problems about personal identity, consciousness, freedom, and value. This original and illuminating book aim...
Thomas Nagel's Mortal Questions explores some fundamental issues concerning the meaning, nature and value of human life. Questions about our attitudes to death, sexual behaviour, social inequality, war and political power are shown to lead to more obviously philosophical problems about personal identity, consciousness, freedom, and value. This original and illuminating book aims at a form of understanding that is both theoretical and personal in its lively engagement with what are literally issues of life and death.
But a different kind of absurdity attaches to the production of philosophical criticism of public policy. Moral judgment and moral theory certainly apply to public questions, but they are notably ineffective. When powerful interests are involved it is very difficult to change anything by arguments, however cogent, which appeal to decency, humanity, compassion, or fairness. These considerations also have to compete with the more primitive moral sentiments of honor and retribution and respect for strength. The importance of these in our time makes it unwise in a political argument to condemn aggression and urge altruism or humanity, since the preservation of honor usually demands a capacity for aggression and resistance to humanity.
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People have to be ready to listen, and that is not deter... (查看原文)
《哈姆莱特》第一幕有一场戏。正当雷欧提斯(Laertes)准备动身前往巴黎时,他老爹波洛涅斯(Polonius)开始给儿子讲大道理。内容无外乎什么“去了那里,少说话,不要借钱给人,祸从口出”一类老生常谈。临到末了,老人家突然来了句: This above all: to thine own self be tr...
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记录一些Nagel让人费解的表达,和感想。 1,1974年,Nagel发表在Philosophical Review上的这篇What Is It Like to Be a Bat?(收录在这本书里),连同他本人一道已经是历史的一部分。如果要击倒所谓的Qualia Theory,就应该找最新的版本下手(柿子不能捡软的捏!)。但这不是我...
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0 有用 Claire 2012-12-24 19:41:14
24 September 2011 From Chicago IL, CPP