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THOMAS NAGEL What Does It All Mean? A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS New York Oxford Oxford University Press Oxford New York Toronto Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Petaling Jaya Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town Melbourne Auckland and associated companies in Beirut Berlin Ibadan Nicosia Copyright ? 1987 by Thomas Nagel Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4314 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nagel, Thomas. What does it all mean? 1. Philosophy -- Introductions. I. Title. BD21.N24 1987 100 87-14316 ISBN 0-19-505292-7 ISBN 0-19-505216-1 (pbk.) cloth 10 9 8 7 6 paper 25 24 23 22 21 20 Printed in the United States of America Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. How Do We Know Anything? 8 3. Other Minds 19 4. The Mind-Body Problem 27 5. The Meaning of Words 38 6. Free Will 47 7. Right and Wrong 59 8. Justice 76 9. Death 87 10. The Meaning of Life 95 What Does It All Mean? -1- 1 Introduction This book is a brief introduction to philosophy for people who dont know the first thing about the subject. People ordinarily study philosophy only when they go to college, and I suppose that most readers will be of college age or older. But that has nothing to do with the nature of the subject, and I would be very glad if the book were also of interest to intelligent high school students with a taste for abstract ideas and theoretical arguments -- should any of them read it. Our analytical capacities are often highly developed before we have learned a gre