Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I THE STRUCTURE OF KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS
- PART II KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
- PART III KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
- 5 Nagel's Bat Argument
- 6 Jackson's Mary Argument (1)
- 7 Jackson's Mary Argument (2)
- PART IV KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS AND NONTHEORETICAL PHYSICALISM
- References
- Index
5 - Nagel's Bat Argument
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- PART I THE STRUCTURE OF KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS
- PART II KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
- PART III KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MIND
- 5 Nagel's Bat Argument
- 6 Jackson's Mary Argument (1)
- 7 Jackson's Mary Argument (2)
- PART IV KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENTS AND NONTHEORETICAL PHYSICALISM
- References
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
In Part I, I discussed two knowledge arguments in the philosophy of religion: Patrick Grim's argument from knowledge de se and the argument from concept possession. To examine these arguments is, of course, an important task in itself. However, in what follows I contrast them with two knowledge arguments in the philosophy of mind: Thomas Nagel's bat argument and Frank Jackson's Mary argument. I argue that my objections to the knowledge arguments in the philosophy of religion are useful in establishing new, effective objections to the knowledge arguments in the philosophy of mind. I claim that Nagel's bat argument is structurally parallel to Grim's argument from knowledge de se and that Jackson's Mary argument is structurally parallel to the argument from concept possession. I try to undermine these knowledge arguments in the philosophy of mind by contrasting them with their counterparts in the philosophy of religion.
In Chapter 2 I discussed Grim's argument from knowledge de se. I argued that the argument was unsuccessful because it appealed to a necessary impossibility. In this chapter I discuss Thomas Nagel's bat argument against physicalism. On the face of it, there is no connection between Grim's argument and Nagel's argument. I argue, however, that Nagel's argument fails for essentially the same reason that Grim's does.
In his famous paper, ‘What Is It Like To Be a Bat?’ (1974), Nagel illustrates the difficulty of characterising phenomenal consciousness in general.
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- Information
- God and Phenomenal ConsciousnessA Novel Approach to Knowledge Arguments, pp. 77 - 98Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008