Bøger af Thomas Nagel

Bevidstheden er et besynderligt fænomen. Den er omnipotent, men kan ikke ses. Uanset mængden af forskning i synapser og kemiske tilstande i hjernen lader vi ikke til at nærme os nogen løsning på gåden om den. Men hvorfor er bevidstheden egentlig så svær at få styr på? I sin berømte flagermusartikel fra 1974 gør Thomas Nagel op med fysikalistiske teorier om sindet og hidtidige løsninger på sjæl-legeme-problemet. Bevidsthedsfilosofferne har nemlig altid løbet panden mod en mur, når de har overset de subjektive egenskaber ved bevidst erfaring, og dermed reduceret målet for deres undersøgelser med objektive tredjepersonsbeskrivelser efter naturvidenskabeligt forbillede. Men det vigtigste for enhver forståelse af bevidsthed er, at det at være en bevidsthed opleves på en bestemt måde, og det kan kun forstås fra et subjektivt perspektiv. Hvordan er det at være en flagermus? er en del af bogserien AFTRYK, der samler korte og vedkommende filosofiske tekster med en væsentlig virkningshistorie. Oliver Kauffmann har skrevet introduktion til teksten, der gør den relevant for studerende såvel som læsere, som ønsker at få indblik i kritikken af en verdensanskuelse “under evighedens synsvinkel”.

This book is a fiftieth anniversary republication of Thomas Nagel's "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?", a classic article in the philosophy of mind. Through its argument for the irreducible subjectivity of consciousness, it played an essential role in making the study of consciousness a central part of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. It also spurred the now flourishing scientific attention to the consciousness of non-human creatures: mammals, birds, fish, mollusks, and insects. The book also includes a second essay offering Nagel's more recent thoughts on the most promising positive response to the mind-body problem, as posed in the original essay.

In this cogent and accessible introduction to philosophy, the distinguished author of Mortal Questions and The View From Nowhere sets forth the central problems of philosophical inquiry for the beginning student. Arguing that the best way to learn about philosophy is to think about its questions directly, Thomas Nagel considers possible solutions to nine problems--knowledge of the world beyond our minds, knowledge of other minds, the mind-body problem, free will, the basis of morality, right and wrong, the nature of death, the meaning of life, and the meaning of words. Although he states his own opinions clearly, Nagel leaves these fundamental questions open, allowing students to entertain other solutions and encouraging them to think for themselves.

This is an open access book. In view of growing conflicts over strategic georesources, the use of the geological subsurface in the sense of a regional resource is becoming increasingly important. In this context, georeservoirs are playing an important role for the energy transition not only as a source of energy but also as a storage facility and deep geological disposal for energy waste. The success of the energy transition also depends to a large extent on the efficient and safe use of underground resources.This book complements the previous basic book (GeomInt¿Integrity of Host Rocks) with a series of application examples in different rock formations, clay, salt, and crystalline. The methodology developed in GeomInt is used, among others, in the Mont Terri underground research laboratory (Opalinus Clay), in the large borehole test in Springen (salt rock) and in the ¿Reiche Zeche¿ teaching and research mine (crystalline rock). In addition, new methodological developments are also taken up in experiments and models and embedded in workflows for geotechnical system analyses. The present book summarizes the results of the collaborative project ¿GeomInt2: Geomechanical integrity of host and barrier rocks - experiment, modeling and analysis of discontinuities¿ within the program: Geo Research for Sustainability (GEO: N) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

This volume presents two closely related essays by Thomas Nagel: "Gut Feelings and Moral Knowledge," discusses the value of intuitions in understanding human rights and argues against subjectivist and reductionist accounts of morality of the kind offered by evolutionary psychology or based on brain scans. The second essay, "Moral Reality and Moral Progress," proposes an account of the historical development of moral truth, according to which it does not share the timelessness of scientific truth. This is because moral truth must be based on reasons that are accessible to the individuals to whom they apply, and such accessibility depends on historical developments. The result is that only some advances in moral knowledge are discoveries of what has been true all along.

Thermochemical gas-solid reactions, as well as adsorption processes, are currently of significant interest for the design of heat storage systems. This book provides detailed models of these reactions and processes that account for heat and mass transport, chemical and physical reactions, and possible local thermal non-equilibrium.

A collection of articles that focuses on moral questions about war. It covers a range of topics from several points of view by writers from the fields of political science, philosophy, and law.

In this book, effective computational methods to facilitate those pivotal simulations using open-source software are introduced and discussed with a special focus on the coupled thermo-mechanical behavior of the rock salt.

Thomas Nagel's Mortal Questions explores some fundamental issues concerning the meaning, nature and value of human life. Questions about our attitudes to death, sexual behaviour, social inequality, war and political power are shown to lead to more obviously philosophical problems about personal identity, consciousness, freedom and value. This original and illuminating book aims at a form of understanding that is both theoretical and personal in its lively engagement with what are literally issues of life and death.

Just as there are rational requirements on thought, there are rational requirements on action. This book defends a conception of ethics, and a related conception of human nature, according to which altruism is included among the basic rational requirements on desire and action.