Hammering Nagel

I started writing a long piece on philosopher Thomas Nagel's new book Mind And Cosmos, where he questions neo-Darwinism from his well-known anti-reductionist stance. It got too long and boring, so I'll just make a few short points instead.

First, this seems to be (though Nagel might not agree) yet another attack on modern science, particularly Darwin, by a philosopher.  While they're free to attack--and novel arguments that "wake you up" are some philosopher's stock in trade--so often their lack of scientific rigor (or science of any kind) make their claims sound pointless to actual scientists who work in the field.

Second, Nagel is an atheist who doesn't agree with the Intelligent Design movement, but I'm not entirely sure why.  The questions he has about evolution are the exact same ones the creationists ask.

Finally, having trouble with the mind is as old as the theory of evolution itself.  Alfred Russel Wallace, who "discovered" evolution with Darwin, split with evolutionists in later years over questions about the mind. (I won't go over the specific debate, though Wallace was a bit of a hyper-adaptationist.)  Consciousness is a tricky question, no doubt, but Nagel seems far too confident that he must be right, and as far as I can tell, his main argument still seems to be he just can't understand how it can be any other way.