Leiden University Student Repository

Sieders, Gijs (2023)

The Intelligibility of Consciousness: A Refutation of James DiFrisco on Mind and Cosmos

Bachelor thesis | Filosofie (BA)

After Thomas Nagel publicised Mind and Cosmos in 2012, the response was overwhelmingly negative. Nagel criticises the Neo-Darwinian conception of nature and its apparent materialist naturalist orthodoxy in this book. I respond to James DiFrisco’s criticism of Nagel’s Mind and Cosmos in this thesis. I defend Mind and Cosmos against the two core criticisms put forward by DiFrisco. In the first chapter, I will explain Nagel’s criticism of physicalism in the philosophy of mind, the physical sciences and NeoDarwinist evolutionary theory in particular. In chapter two, I will elaborate on DiFrisco’s two core criticisms. These are Nagel's alleged confusion of Neo-Darwinist evolutionary theory as a theory of everything and an accusation that Nagel paints a false opponent in biology. I will refute DiFrisco’s two core criticisms in the third and final chapter.

Consciousness

Philosophy of Mind

Evolution

Author

Sieders, Gijs

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Theoretische Filosofie

Supervisors

Dr. Martin Lipman

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en