The Last Word Summary

This book was an unexpected surprise. Having taught Introduction to Philosophy over the past year, I have been challenged with how to argue for and articulate the necessity of reason. Most students with whom I interact assume a subjectivist post-modernism without even realizing it. Nagel appropriately addresses these issues. I will be able to apply his arguments in teaching and discussion about subjectivism in general and ethics and religion in specific.

As if it is the ultimate trump card, students will throw back at me 'well, that's your opinion'. With ferver I have defended the need for open discussion and a willingness to be open to positions other than our own. Nagel takes it a step further by arguing that we must use reason to arrive at truth. While he builds off of a very different foundation than I do (athropocentric rather than theocentric) I appreciate the work he does. I now have solid, convincing arguments against this non-thinking position of "that's just your opinion".

As applied to Ethics, most of us assume that they are relative and cannot be known as solid sources of truth. Coming from a Christian background, this makes me very uncomfortable. However, Nagel argues for applying reason to our ethics. While I do not find his arguments terribly convincing, what I think is crucial is that he assumes the possibility of objective ethics. That is extremely important. I also believe that this ultimately will lead to a view of God. I plan to use this for my philosophy class as well.

Finally, his comparison of naturalism and religion was refreshing. I plan to use this discussion in a few ways. First, I hope to use it as an argument for the inability of naturalism to offer us any confidence in our reason. Second, I hope to use this as encouragement to my people that the existence of reason points to God's desire for us to have knowledge. Third, he quotes Charles Sanders Pierce saying "Full belief is willingness to act upon the proposition in vital crises, opinion is willingness to act upon it in relatively insignificant affairs." What I appreciate about this quote is that, if we believe what we say we believe, we will act upon it no matter what.