Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
Thomas NagelRead
Altruism itself depends on a recognition of the reality of other persons, and on the equivalent capacity to regard oneself as merely one individual among many.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Altruism requires acknowledging the existence and importance of others while understanding one's own individuality.
This quote by Thomas Nagel highlights the essence of altruism, which involves recognizing other people's realities and needs while maintaining an awareness of oneself as just one among many individuals. It emphasizes the balance between self-recognition and empathy towards others, suggesting that true altruistic behavior arises from understanding our interconnectedness in a shared humanity.
Themes
AltruismEmpathyIndividualityHumanityRecognition
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about community service, one could use this quote to inspire volunteers.
More from Thomas Nagel
All quotes →To look for a single general theory of how to decide the right thing to do is like looking for a single theory of how to decide what to believe.
Thomas NagelRead
It is prima facie highly implausible that life as we know it is the result of a sequence of physical accidents together with the mechanism of natural selection. We are supposed to abandon this naïve response, not in favor of a fully worked out physical/chemical explanation but in favor of an alternative that is really a schema for explanation, supported by some examples. What is lacking, to my knowledge, is a credible argument that the story has a nonnegligible probability of being true.
Thomas NagelRead
There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality.
Thomas NagelRead
Once we see an aspect of what we or someone else does as something that happens, we lose our grip on the idea that it has been done and that we can judge the doer and not just the happening.
Thomas NagelRead
The external view [of agency] forces itself on us at the same time that we resist it. One way this occurs is through the gradual erosion of what we do by the subtraction of what happens.
Thomas NagelRead
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