Any organism, according to Nagel, has a consciousness only if it has a point of view. Nagel argues that objective facts can only be achieved by removing one’s point of view, but since point of view is tied to consciousness, consciousness can never be understood objectively. Nagel claims that consciousness, and therefore point of view, cannot be reduced to mere physical descriptions.
Consciousness (and thus point of view) is necessarily subjective, which precludes it from any objective and scientific understanding.In a 1974 essay, “What is it like to be a bat? ” he claims that the way bats perceive their surroundings (through echolocation) is subjectively nothing like whatever humans can experience or imagine. Thus there is no way of truly objective method of answering the question “what is it like to be a bat? ” It is impossible to know what it is like to be a bat “by imagining additions to my present experience, or by imagining segments gradually subtracted from it, or by imagining some combination of additions, subtractions, and modifications. (Nagel, 1975)Nagel claims that it is “unlikely that any physical theory of mind can be contemplated until more thought has been given to the general problem of subjective and objective. ” (Nagel, 1975) Objective phenomena are simply “the way things are” while subjective phenomena are “the way things seem to be.
” Objective facts are independent from any observer, and the subjective experience (the “what is it like to be”) cannot be objectified because they are necessarily dependent on the observer’s point of view.
