Thomas Nagel: Mind and Cosmos. Why the Materialist, Neo-Darwinian Conception is Almost Certainly False

摘要

Anti-naturalists share the conviction that something is wrong with the naturalistic conceptual frame and with the idea that in principle all events are explainable by using the means of physics. Physicalist naturalism is the modern form of old fashioned materialism. And there is no doubt that naturalism is still going strong notwithstanding its critiques. In ethics the boom of present-day Kantian constructivism can be understood as the last and maybe the most sophisticated "naturalist" answer to the realist challenge in ethics. Assuming that our language of morals is objectivist as John Mackie conceded (Mackie 1977), the project of analytical philosophy to transform ethics into philosophy of language showing that the ordinary language use of normative predicates like ought or good can and should be interpreted as expressing subjective attitudes, collapsed. Since then the prevailing scope of analytical ethics has been to reconcile naturalist metaphysics, normative ethics and moral motivation. Some presented ethical realism as a version of naturalism, others tried to develop expressivist or quasi-realistic interpretations to cope with both the realist appearance of normative language and a naturalistic Weltanschauung. Moral motivation and ethical belief do not fit well into a naturalistic worldview. If reasons are objective and normative at the same time, they cannot be reduced to causes. Reasons realism became one of the most forceful opponents to naturalism.