"Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"
E421697
"Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" is a controversial 2012 philosophical book by Thomas Nagel that challenges mainstream materialist and evolutionary explanations of mind, consciousness, and value.
All labels observed (4)
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4231361 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" Context triple: [Thomas Nagel, hasWork, "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"]
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A.
Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity
"Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity" is a seminal interdisciplinary book by Gregory Bateson that explores the deep patterns and principles connecting mental processes, biological systems, and the natural world.
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B.
Consciousness Explained
Consciousness Explained is a 1991 book by philosopher Daniel Dennett that presents a influential cognitive and philosophical theory of consciousness grounded in neuroscience and computational models.
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C.
God and Other Minds
"God and Other Minds" is a 1967 philosophical work by Alvin Plantinga that argues belief in God can be rationally justified in a way analogous to belief in other minds.
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D.
The Concept of Mind
The Concept of Mind is a 1949 philosophical work by Gilbert Ryle that critiques Cartesian dualism and introduces the idea of mental concepts as dispositions rather than inner ghostly states.
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E.
Consciousness: An Introduction
Consciousness: An Introduction is a widely used textbook by Susan Blackmore that surveys scientific, philosophical, and psychological approaches to understanding conscious experience.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" Target entity description: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" is a controversial 2012 philosophical book by Thomas Nagel that challenges mainstream materialist and evolutionary explanations of mind, consciousness, and value.
-
A.
Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity
"Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity" is a seminal interdisciplinary book by Gregory Bateson that explores the deep patterns and principles connecting mental processes, biological systems, and the natural world.
-
B.
Consciousness Explained
Consciousness Explained is a 1991 book by philosopher Daniel Dennett that presents a influential cognitive and philosophical theory of consciousness grounded in neuroscience and computational models.
-
C.
God and Other Minds
"God and Other Minds" is a 1967 philosophical work by Alvin Plantinga that argues belief in God can be rationally justified in a way analogous to belief in other minds.
-
D.
The Concept of Mind
The Concept of Mind is a 1949 philosophical work by Gilbert Ryle that critiques Cartesian dualism and introduces the idea of mental concepts as dispositions rather than inner ghostly states.
-
E.
Consciousness: An Introduction
Consciousness: An Introduction is a widely used textbook by Susan Blackmore that surveys scientific, philosophical, and psychological approaches to understanding conscious experience.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
philosophical work ⓘ |
| addressesQuestion |
how mind fits into a naturalistic worldview
ⓘ
whether values can be accommodated within a scientific picture of the world ⓘ |
| arguesThat |
an adequate worldview must integrate mind, meaning, and value into its basic explanatory framework
ⓘ
mind and consciousness cannot be fully explained by physical science as currently conceived ⓘ objective value and normativity are real features of the world ⓘ |
| author | Thomas Nagel ⓘ |
| claims |
consciousness is not plausibly reducible to physical processes
ⓘ
evolutionary naturalism struggles to explain the reliability of human cognition ⓘ evolutionary theory in its current form cannot fully account for the emergence of reason ⓘ |
| controversial | true ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| criticizedBy |
many evolutionary biologists
ⓘ
many philosophers of science ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
mischaracterizing contemporary evolutionary theory
ⓘ
underestimating the resources of physicalism ⓘ |
| format | print ⓘ |
| genre |
metaphysics
ⓘ
philosophy of mind ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ |
| influencedBy | Thomas Nagel's earlier work on consciousness ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| length | relatively short monograph ⓘ |
| mainThesis | the materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature is almost certainly false ⓘ |
| notableFor | provoking extensive debate in philosophy and science ⓘ |
| philosophicalDomain | analytic philosophy ⓘ |
| philosophicalStance |
non-reductive naturalism
ⓘ
teleological naturalism ⓘ |
| positionCritiqued |
materialist reductionism
ⓘ
scientific naturalism ⓘ standard evolutionary explanations of consciousness ⓘ |
| praisedFor |
challenging prevailing assumptions in philosophy of mind
ⓘ
raising fundamental questions about consciousness and value ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2012 ⓘ |
| publisher | Oxford University Press ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
ⓘ
linked to:
"What Is It Like to Be a Bat?"
|
| subject |
consciousness
ⓘ
evolution ⓘ materialism ⓘ mind ⓘ neo-Darwinism ⓘ
linked to:
modern evolutionary synthesis
value ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" Description of subject: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" is a controversial 2012 philosophical book by Thomas Nagel that challenges mainstream materialist and evolutionary explanations of mind, consciousness, and value.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
Thomas Nagel
→
hasWork
→
"Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"
ⓘ
subject linked to:
Nagel
linked to: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"
Mind and Cosmos
→
fullTitle
→
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
ⓘ
subject linked to:
book "Mind and Cosmos"
linked to: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"
subject linked to:
book "Mind and Cosmos"
linked to: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
→
mainThesis
→
the materialist neo-Darwinian conception of nature is almost certainly false
ⓘ
subject linked to:
"Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"
linked to: "Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False"