| 1 | Name: | Dr. Thomas Nagel | |
| Institution: | New York University | ||
| Year Elected: | 2006 | ||
| Class: | 4. Humanities | ||
| Subdivision: | 406. Linguistics | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1937 | ||
Thomas Nagel was born in Yugoslavia in 1937. After earning his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1963, he served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and New York University, where he is currently Professor of Philosophy and Law and University Professor. He was awarded the Balzan Prize for Moral Philosophy in 2008. Among his writings in philosophy of mind, Dr. Nagel's 1974 essay "What is it like to be a bat?" defended an antireductionist position about the problem of consciousness. He is one of the half dozen most respected moral philosophers in the world. While defending the possibility of objective reasoning about value, he has never ignored the role of subjective reasons, and, with the late Bernard Williams, he pioneered the discussion of "moral luck." He is simultaneously a humanistic and an analytic philosopher, and he shows that there is no contradiction involved in being both. | |||