Thomas Nagel
American philosopher and professor
Thomas Nagel is an American philosopher who taught at New York University. He is known for his essay "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" and his work on mind, ethics and politics.
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American Born 1937 in Belgrade, Serbia
About Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), in 1937. He earned his doctorate at Harvard University under John Rawls. He taught at the University of California, Berkeley, then at Princeton University, and joined New York University in 1980, where he is University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus. His main interests are philosophy of mind, political philosophy and ethics. His 1974 essay "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" criticizes reductionist accounts of the mind, and The Possibility of Altruism (1970) contributed to liberal moral and political theory. In Mind and Cosmos (2012) he continued his challenge to reductionism. Nagel co-founded the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs in the 1970s. In 1967 he and Robert Nozick also co-founded the Society for Ethical and Legal Philosophy. His book What Does It All Mean? is in the BookBits catalog.