Intermix Session - What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

​Description

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​What Is It Like to Be a Bat? is a well-known philosophical text by Thomas Nagel that examines what it means to experience the world from a particular point of view.

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​In this Intermix session, participants will read and discuss Nagel’s work and explore how consciousness is described, explained, and limited by objective accounts.

​Conversation is open-ended and welcomes a multitude of perspectives from all backgrounds!

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​Media / Reading

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​What Is It Like to Be a Bat? — Thomas Nagel

​Philosophical text, discussed via the 2024 Oxford University Press republication.

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​Where to View [Educational Purposes Only]

​ Archive Link of Nagel's Oxford Edition (2024) Preface & Chapter 1 (read pg. 6-21)

​Terms You May Encounter / Know

• ​Reductionism

• ​Turing Test

• ​Phenomenology

• ​Physicalism

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​Conversation Starters

• ​What are Nagel’s views on consciousness, and how do they complement or
  conflict with your discipline, beliefs, or worldview?

• ​How should consciousness inform contemporary discussions about AI ethics?

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​Source

​Nagel, Thomas. What Is It Like to Be a Bat? New York: Oxford
University Press, 2024.