Home / Library / What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

🟡 Seed Entry — This entry has been imported from the Phase 1 inventory but has not yet been manually reviewed. Please cross-reference with the original source before citing.
Philosophy Subjective character of experienceAnti-reductionism

By Thomas Nagel

Summary

An organism has conscious mental states iff there is something it is *like* to be that organism. Subjective character cannot be captured by any objective, third-person reduction. The bat's sonar-based phenomenology is inaccessible to human science.

Why It Matters

This 1974 paper is arguably the most cited work in modern consciousness studies. It established the benchmark any theory of consciousness must meet — explaining subjectivity, not just function.

Notes

This entry is a seed import from the Phase 1 Knowledge Inventory. It has not yet been manually reviewed.