Biologism -- the belief that human beings are essentially animals and can be understood in biological terms -- is gaining increasing acceptance in contemporary thought. This trend is seemingly legitimised by genuine, often spectacular, advances in biological science: in human genetics, evolutionary theory and neuroscience. Our propensities, we are told, can be accounted for by "a gene for" this or that; everyday behaviour can be explained in Darwinian terms; and human consciousness is identified with the activity of the evolved brain. Ultimately, so the story goes, all that we do, think and feel is subordinated to the imperative of ensuring that we behave in such a way as to, individually or collectively, maximise the chances of replicating our genetic material. In Aping Mankind, Raymond Tallis argues that the rise of this way of thinking is a matter of profound concern. He demonstrates that by denying human uniqueness, and minimising the differences between humans and their nearest animal kin, biologism misrepresents what we are, offering a grotesquely simplified and even degrading account of humanity, which has dire consequences: by seeing ourselves as animals we may find reasons for treating each other like them. In a devastating critique Tallis exposes the exaggerated claims made for the ability of neuroscience and evolutionary theory to explain human consciousness, behaviour, culture and society and shows that human beings are infinitely more interesting and complex than they appear in the mirror of biologism.
| ISBN | 1844652726 | | Pages | 400 | | ISBN13 | 9781844652723
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 776 | | Publisher | Acumen Publishing Ltd | | Published in | Durham | | Imprint | Acumen Publishing Ltd | | Height (mm) | 234 | | Format | Hardback | | Width (mm) | 156 | | Publication date | 26 May 2011 | | Spine width (mm) | 37 | | DEWEY | 304.5 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY edition | DC23 | |
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Preface: The Strange Case of Professor Gray and Other Provocations 1. Science and Scientism 2. Consequences 3. Neuromania: A Castle Built on Sand 4. From Darwinism to Darwinitis 5. Bewitched by Language 6. The Sighted Watchmaker 7. Restoring Humanity 8. Restoring the Humanities 9. Back to the Drawing Board
"A splendid book. Tallis is right to say that current attempts to explain major elements of human life by brain-talk are fearfully misguided... Tallis is exceptional in having both the philosophical grasp to understand what is wrong here and the scientific knowledge to expose it fully. He documents the gravity of this menace in a clear, vigorous style, with real fire, venom and humour." Mary Midgley "A wonderful book and an important book, one that all neuroscientists should read. Tallis's fearless criticism of the work of some distinguised contemporary academics and scientists and the rather ludicrous experimental paradigms of fMRI work needs to be made." Simon Shorvon, UCL Institute of Neurology
Einstein is right. Excellent marred by wishful thinking Chardins noosphere?, which has nothing to do with its critique of the methodology reviewed. My Baron-Cohen on this site. I agree with his negative opinion of the idea that the mind is the brains experience of itself that the brain is an evolved organ that scientism is incorrect that his key target is a flawed discipline. I seek no consummation of consciousness no hunger for finality no interest in an ultimate cognitive arrival no meaning in my life. I do not feel my consciousness affected by the consciousness of others. I have no objective knowledge. There is no spirituality and I am not part of a mental collective. I am not the cause of my actions, neither is there a cause outside me. Poetry is rubbish. I am and I will not be. That humans are fundamentally special is unsustainable. The only thing that humans are better at is killing their own species with utmost cruelty. If we are not just our brains, what else are we? If the humanities are outside biology, where are they? What transcendental agent could have an effect? Hope, despair, belief no empirical value functions of the brain. As time, consciousness is not understood, but must arise from matter no reason to give it a preferred position. Personality and consciousness will probably prove to be as fictional as time and causality. If memory is not in matter does it just float around and how is it accessed? Do lost memories still float around somewhere? Can he demonstrate in a testable form for me that he is conscious? It is not an effect of the material world but part of the material world. Humanity is the random result of a quantum fluctuation or part of an infinitely recurring universe with quantum decoherence. Everything that we are is merely a function of the matter of which we are composed. Nothing has value. There is no free will, good or evil. There are no such things as facts, just tested and unfalsified hypotheses. Our actions are not determined by forces outside ourselves in the absence of time, the universe is an immutable whole. We can study it, but never understand it as we are part of it. Testable hypotheses? Russell I should say that the universe is just there, and thats all. -
Dr Michael Ford
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