What Does It All Mean? - Thomas Nagel Flashcards
Philosophy is different from science and from mathematics. Unlike science it does not rely on experiments or observation, but only on thought. Unlike maths it has no formal methods of proof.
Couldn’t all your experiences be like a giant dream with no external world outside it?
It’s even possible that you don’t have a body or a brain since your beliefs about that come only through the evidence of your senses.
A radical conclusion to draw from this would be that your mind is the only thing that exists. This view is called solipsism.
Perhaps the right to conclusion to draw is that you don’t know anything beyond your impressions and experiences. This view is called skepticism about the external world.
If we cannot establish the reliability of our sense experiences in relation to the external world, there’s no reason to think we can rely on our scientific theories either.
The skeptic is kidding himself if he thinks he can imagine that the only thing that exists is his own mind. It couldn’t be true that the physical world doesn’t really exist, unless somebody else could OBSERVE that it doesn’t exist.
If you think about it, the inside of your own mind is the only thing you can be sure of.
If you try to prove the reliability of your impressions by appealing to your impressions, you’re arguing in a circle and we won’t get anywhere.
There may be no way out of the cage of your own mind. This is sometimes called the egocentric predicament.
We hold onto most of our ordinary beliefs about the world in face of the fact that a) they might be completely false and b) we have no basis for ruling out that possibility.
