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
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Philosophy is essential for intellectual growth; ignoring it stunts cultural development.
Thomas Nagel's quote emphasizes the importance of philosophy as a foundational aspect of intellectual development. He suggests that just as childhood is a crucial stage for personal growth, philosophy is necessary for a culture's maturity and understanding. Neglecting this discipline can lead to a stagnant society that fails to evolve or comprehend deeper truths about existence and governance.
Themes
PhilosophyIntellectCultureGrowthMaturity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a lecture about the importance of philosophical education.
More from Thomas Nagel
All quotes βIt 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 naΓ―ve 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.
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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.
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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