''Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False'' is a 2012 book by the philosopher

Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 to 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are legal philosophy, ...

Summary

Nagel argues that the

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of s ...

s are unable to account for the existence of

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

and

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

and that the methodologies employed must be revised. He writes that mind is a basic aspect of nature and that any philosophy of nature that cannot account for it is fundamentally misguided. He argues that the standard naturalistic view flies in the face of common sense. Nagel's position is that principles of an entirely different kind may account for the emergence of life, and in particular conscious life, and that those principles may be

teleological Teleology (from and )Partridge, Eric. 1977''Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English'' London: Routledge, p. 4187. or finalityDubray, Charles. 2020 912Teleology" In ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' 14. New York: Robert Appleton ...

, rather than materialist or mechanistic. He stresses that his argument is not a religious one (he is an atheist) and that it is not based on the theory of

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...

(ID), though he also writes that ID proponents such as

Michael Behe Michael Joseph Behe ( ; born January 18, 1952) is an American biochemist and author, widely known as an advocate of the pseudoscientific principle of intelligent design (ID). He serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsy ...

Stephen C. Meyer Stephen C. Meyer (; born 1958) is an American author and former educator. He is an advocate of the pseudoscience of intelligent design and helped found the Center for Science and Culture (CSC) of the Discovery Institute (DI), which is the m ...

, and

David Berlinski David Berlinski (born 1942) is an American author who has written books about mathematics and the history of science as well as fiction. An opponent of evolution, he is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Cultur ...

do not deserve the scorn with which their ideas have been met by the overwhelming majority of the scientific establishment.

Reception

Reviews of the book were polarizing, generating significant criticism from numerous scientists and philosophers, including from

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ...

Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett III (born March 28, 1942) is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relat ...

, and

Elliott Sober Elliott R. Sober (born 6 June 1948) is Hans Reichenbach Professor and William F. Vilas Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Sober is noted for his work in philosophy of biology and general phil ...

Michael Chorost Michael Chorost (born December 26, 1964) is an American book author, essayist, and public speaker. Born with severe loss of hearing due to rubella, his hearing was partially restored with a cochlear implant in 2001 and he had his other ear implan ...

wrote that Nagel raised valid criticisms but did not sufficiently engage with the large – though not dominant – body of scientific literature related to natural teleology. Chorost also suggests the book would have received less criticism had Nagel not endorsed criticisms raised by proponents of intelligent design, despite Nagel's not having endorsed intelligent design as a solution. In an article in ''New Republic'',

Leon Wieseltier Leon Wieseltier (; born June 14, 1952) is an American critic and magazine editor. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of ''The New Republic''. He was a contributing editor and critic at ''The Atlantic'' until October 27, 2017, when the ...

argued that Nagel was "not denounced for being wrong, but also for being heretical." Philosopher

Gary Gutting Gary Michael Gutting (April 11, 1942 – January 18, 2019) was an American philosopher and holder of an endowed chair in philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. His daughter is writer Tasha Alexander. Work Gutting was an expert on the phil ...

noted that despite the book's argumentative failings, praised Nagel for developing an "atheism that is anti-materialist" and called it a "refreshing change in our stale battle between science and religion." Physicist

Stephen Barr __NOTOC__ Stephen Matthew Barr (born November 28, 1953) is an American physicist who is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Delaware. A member of its Bartol Research Institute, Barr does research in theoretical particle physics a ...

echoed praise for Nagel's boldness, stating that "we ought to be grateful that Nagel has been able to see so much “more of what is so evidently the case” than most contemporary philosophers."

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

*{{cite book, last=Nagel, first=Thomas, title=Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False, year=2012, publisher=Oxford University Press, location=Oxford, isbn=978-0-19-991975-8

External links

* Thomas Nagel
"The Core of ‘Mind and Cosmos’"
'' The Stone'' August 18, 2013 * Edward Feser
"Aristotle, Call Your Office"
''

First Things ''First Things'' (''FT'') is an ecumenical and conservative religious journal aimed at "advanc nga religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society". The magazine, which focuses on theology, liturgy, church history, religi ...

'' *

"Remarkable Facts: Ending Science As We Know It"
''

Boston Review ''Boston Review'' is an American quarterly political and literary magazine. It publishes political, social, and historical analysis, literary and cultural criticism, book reviews, fiction, and poetry, both online and in print. Its signature form ...

'' * Wes Alwan
"Evolution is Rigged! A Review of Thomas Nagel’s 'Mind and Cosmos'"
'' The Partially Examined Life'' * Louis B. Jones and

P. N. Furbank Philip Nicholas Furbank FRSL (; 23 May 1920 – 27 June 2014) was an English biographer, critic and academic. His most significant biography was the well-received life of his friend E. M. Forster. Career After Reigate Grammar School, Furbank e ...

"Two Perspectives on Thomas Nagel's ''Mind and Cosmos''
'' The Threepenny Review'' Fall 2012 *

John Dupré John A. Dupré (born 3 July 1952) is a British philosopher of science. He is the director of Egenis, the Centre for the Study of Life Sciences, and professor of philosophy at the University of Exeter. Dupré's chief work area lies in philosophy ...

untitled review
''Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews'' * Brian Leiter and Michael Weisberg
"Do You Only Have a Brain? On Thomas Nagel"
''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

'' October 3, 2012 * Adam Frank
"Is There A Place For The Mind In Physics? Part I"
NPR * Alva Noe
"Arguing The Nature Of Values"
NPR *

H. Allen Orr H. Allen Orr (born 1960) is the Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of Biology at the University of Rochester. Education and career Orr earned his bachelor's degree in Biology and Philosophy from the College of William and Mary and his Ph.D. in Biology ...

"Awaiting a New Darwin"
''

New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...

'' Feb 7, 2013 *

J. P. Moreland James Porter Moreland (born March 9, 1948), better known as J. P. Moreland, is an American philosopher, theologian, and Christian apologist. He currently serves as a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Biola Univ ...

, "A Reluctant Traveler’s Guide for Slouching Towards Theism: A Philosophical Note on Nagel’s ''Mind and Cosmos''
PDF
'' Philosophia Christi'' Vol. 14, No. 2 2012 * Michael Chorost,
Where Thomas Nagel Went Wrong
''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' May 13, 2013 2012 non-fiction books Books about evolution Contemporary philosophical literature Oxford University Press books Non-Darwinian evolution Philosophy books Philosophy of mind literature Works by Thomas Nagel