Absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics.

Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems hopeless.

I'm not sure I understand how responsibility for our choices makes sense if they are not determined.

I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.

The problem is one of opposition between subjective and objective points of view. There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality. But often what appears to a more subjective point of view cannot be accounted for in this way. So either the objective conception of the world is incomplete, or the subjective involves illusions that should be rejected.

Leading a human life is a full-time occupation, to which everyone devotes decades of intense concern.

What is it like to be a bat? What is it like for a bat to be a bat?