Abstract:
Since the origin of modern philosophy, philosophers’ investigation of mind has been hindered by the opposition between the subjective and the objective. Considering the failure of past theories to deal with the relation between the subjective and the objective, Nagel proposes his unique theory of the mind. According to Nagel, conscious experience is a widespread phenomenon, and it has an irreducible subjective character of experience. In addition, he also advocates that we should account for the mind from the objective view, i.e., the objective concept of mind, so as to understand the objectivity of subjective conscious experience.Furthermore, he even claims that the subjective aspect of consciousness is real, and therefore puts forward the notion of subjective reality. Inevitably, various strong views of Nagel’s theory of mind are challenged by physicalists and others. Nonetheless, its unique approach of integrating the subjective and the objective standpoints opens new space for our exploration of mind and therefore occupies a significant position in the study of consciousness.
