Sadler's Lectures

Thomas Nagel, What Is It Like To Be A Bat? - Reductionist Accounts And Conscious Experience

June 15, 2026·11 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

This lecture discusses the 20th century Analytic philosopher, Thomas Nagel's essay "What Is It Like To Be A Bat", and focuses upon the first part of the article, in which Nagel raises a number of general problems for adopting a physicalist reductionist analysis of mind to resolve the mind-body problem by explaining conscious experience in terms of something non-mental, e.g. the brain. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler or Buy Me A Coffee - https://buymeacoffee.com/a4quydwom If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO You can find over 4,000 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler Get Nagel's What Is It Like to Be a Bat? - https://amzn.to/3P8ihhk

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