Nagel stated himself that he is not taken seriously. I think rightly so. Nail foil, on which he writes, is a discomfort at materialism. His teleology is not of God is based. What is it? There are only two other possibilities, either it is materialistic or idealistic. Materialism he rejects as incomplete. If only the idealism, and in fact is teleology wishful thinking. Nagel thinks even as he accuses the scientists.
Nail hypotheses only work because it sets up a bugbear called materialistic science. There may be individual scientists who want to explain feelings, consciousness and values through the material factors of brain physiology. You have to agree not and they have been many and criticized with good arguments.
Subtracting this from bugbear, remains of nail argument not much left. "Mind and Cosmos" is far from being an alternative concept to the so-called psychophysical reductionism and the theory of evolution. The qualitative leap of neurophysiology and molecular biology to the soul and spirit, he also does not want to explain. Nagel considers such explanation impossible in principle, but that will probably represent different over the next 20 or 25 years.
The theory of evolution is not a theory but a fact well, such as gravity. The mechanisms of evolution were described many times since Darwin and have experienced significant transformations and, above all, refinements and additions. There are quite experiments and hypotheses, as organic life could have originated from inorganic matter. Steven Jay Gould and other Darwinists and evolutionary biologists have diverse evidence collected, that the origin of man is based on a series of completely improbable coincidences. Nail thesis that there is a cosmic disposition to the emergence of consciousness must be clearly rejected. The evolution is not applied to perfection and higher development. There is no teleology in evolutionary development. If there is a clear goal of the evolutionary spirit and values, why evolution has then been taking their time so long? And how will know that Spirit is the final stage of evolution nail? Could it not be even further teleological objectives of evolution, of which we have no idea?
Nail criticism of the theory of evolution is again based on a bogeyman, namely, evolution could "explain everything". There is no evolutionary biologists would argue this, and if someone did, he at best represents a minority opinion. The theory of evolution is just like any theory (including nail) incomplete; but it is a mental short circuit to conclude that she was almost certainly wrong. There are still gaps in the materialistic science. These gaps are known among specialists. The good scientist is aware of the limits of its specific field.
Nagel is quite a serious philosopher, but that is not that his theories or hypotheses higher plausibility enjoy than his adversaries. He thinks he can represent the reality better than the scientists. That is doubtful. There is no evidence for his theological perspective other than his good faith. His thoughts building also has large gaps as the materialistic science. He problematizes astute science, but conversely you could take his teleology as shrewd apart. He is so far not completely good scientist, when he did not abcheckt the counterarguments with his. It thus remains a provocateur, the one does not have to take too seriously.
