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Single Idea 3245

[filed under theme 16. Persons / B. Nature of the Self / 4. Presupposition of Self ]

Full Idea

The identity of the self must have some sort of objectivity, otherwise the subjective question whether a future experience will be mine or not will be contentless.

Gist of Idea

The question of whether a future experience will be mine presupposes personal identity

Source

Thomas Nagel (The View from Nowhere [1986], III.3)

Book Ref

Nagel,Thomas: 'The View from Nowhere' [OUP 1989], p.37

A Reaction

This sounds a bit circular and question-begging. If there is no objective self, then the question of whether a future experience will be mine would be a misconceived question. I sympathise with Nagel's attempt to show how personal identity is a priori.

The 63 ideas from Thomas Nagel

3268 If a small brief life is absurd, then so is a long and large one [Nagel]
3269 If your life is to be meaningful as part of some large thing, the large thing must be meaningful [Nagel]
3270 Justifications come to an end when we want them to [Nagel]
4883 Nagel's title creates an impenetrable mystery, by ignoring a bat's ways that may not be "like" anything [Dennett on Nagel]
4989 Physicalism should explain how subjective experience is possible, but not 'what it is like' [Kirk,R on Nagel]
3286 An organism is conscious if and only if there is something it is like to be that organism [Nagel]
3287 We can't be objective about experience [Nagel]
3288 Can we describe our experiences to zombies? [Nagel]
2957 Brain bisection suggests unity of mind isn't all-or-nothing [Nagel, by Lockwood]
3285 We may be unable to abandon personal identity, even when split-brains have undermined it [Nagel]
6479 Noninterference requires justification as much as interference does [Nagel]
6446 In ethics we abstract from our identity, but not from our humanity [Nagel]
6447 Game theory misses out the motivation arising from the impersonal standpoint [Nagel]
6448 A legitimate system is one accepted as both impartial and reasonably partial [Nagel]
6477 I can only universalise a maxim if everyone else could also universalise it [Nagel]
6450 Morality must be motivating, and not because of pre-moral motives [Nagel]
6478 Democracy is opposed to equality, if the poor are not a majority [Nagel]
3273 Equality nowadays is seen as political, social, legal and economic [Nagel]
3274 Equality can either be defended as good for society, or as good for individual rights [Nagel]
3275 Equality was once opposed to aristocracy, but now it opposes public utility and individual rights [Nagel]
3276 A morality of rights is very minimal, leaving a lot of human life without restrictions or duties [Nagel]
3278 An egalitarian system must give priority to those with the worst prospects in life [Nagel]
3277 In judging disputes, should we use one standard, or those of each individual? [Nagel]
3281 The ideal of acceptability to each individual underlies the appeal to equality [Nagel]
3282 The general form of moral reasoning is putting yourself in other people's shoes [Nagel]
3284 There is no one theory of how to act (or what to believe) [Nagel]
1490 You would have to be very morally lazy to ignore criticisms of your own culture [Nagel]
3271 We can't control our own beliefs [Nagel]
3272 Moral luck can arise in character, preconditions, actual circumstances, and outcome [Nagel]
3290 Given the nature of heat and of water, it is literally impossible for water not to boil at the right heat [Nagel]
3291 Emergent properties appear at high levels of complexity, but aren't explainable by the lower levels [Nagel]
1489 Modern philosophy tends to be a theory-constructing extension of science, but there is also problem-solving [Nagel]
4242 Pure supervenience explains nothing, and is a sign of something fundamental we don't know [Nagel]
3292 The most difficult problem of free will is saying what the problem is [Nagel]
3293 If you assert that we have an ego, you can still ask if that future ego will be me [Nagel]
3294 As far as possible we should become instruments to realise what is best from an eternal point of view [Nagel]
3295 Inner v outer brings astonishment that we are a particular person [Nagel]
3296 Sense-data are a false objectification of what is essentially subjective [Nagel]
3240 There is more insight in fundamental perplexity about problems than in their supposed solutions [Nagel]
3242 Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture can't skip it [Nagel]
3241 It seems mad, but the aim of philosophy is to climb outside of our own minds [Nagel]
22429 We achieve objectivity by dropping secondary qualities, to focus on structural primary qualities [Nagel]
3244 Personal identity cannot be fully known a priori [Nagel]
3245 The question of whether a future experience will be mine presupposes personal identity [Nagel]
3246 I can't even conceive of my brain being split in two [Nagel]
20989 Views are objective if they don't rely on a person's character, social position or species [Nagel]
22354 Things cause perceptions, properties have other effects, hence we reach a 'view from nowhere' [Nagel, by Reiss/Sprenger]
3248 Realism invites scepticism because it claims to be objective [Nagel]
3247 Epistemology is centrally about what we should believe, not the definition of knowledge [Nagel]
3249 Modern science depends on the distinction between primary and secondary qualities [Nagel]
3251 Observed regularities are only predictable if we assume hidden necessity [Nagel]
3252 Scepticism is based on ideas which scepticism makes impossible [Nagel]
3255 We find new motives by discovering reasons for action different from our preexisting motives [Nagel]
3254 If we can decide how to live after stepping outside of ourselves, we have the basis of a moral theory [Nagel]
3256 Pain doesn't have a further property of badness; it gives a reason for its avoidance [Nagel]
3257 Total objectivity can't see value, but it sees many people with values [Nagel]
3258 If cockroaches can't think about their actions, they have no duties [Nagel]
3261 Something may be 'rational' either because it is required or because it is acceptable [Nagel]
3262 Utilitarianism is too demanding [Nagel]
3263 If our own life lacks meaning, devotion to others won't give it meaning [Nagel]
3264 We should see others' viewpoints, but not lose touch with our own values [Nagel]
3265 We don't worry about the time before we were born the way we worry about death [Nagel]
4001 The meaning of a word contains all its possible uses as well as its actual ones [Nagel]