CONCEPT
View from Nowhere
The aspiration toward complete objectivity—a description of reality that holds from any perspective or no perspective—that defines scientific knowledge and systematically excludes subjective experience.
Nagel's 1986 framework identifying the central tension in human thought between the objective standpoint (which seeks truth independent of any particular perspective) and the subjective standpoint (which is the only place where experience, value, and meaning reside). The view from nowhere is the ideal of science: eliminate the observer's particular location, biases, and limitations to arrive at a description of the world as it is in itself. This aspiration has produced extraordinary success in physics, chemistry, and biology—sciences whose power derives from their ability to describe phenomena in ways that transcend any individual observer's experience. But the same method that produces objectivity also excludes the subjective character of experience, because subjective character is constituted by perspective and the objective method achieves its power by abstracting away from all particular perspectives. The result is a permanent gap: the view from nowhere is comprehensive but empty of the features that make reality matter to anyone.
In The You On AI Field Guide
Nagel developed this framework in response to