The Hand

What are the origins of human difference? The Hand, which is the first part of a bold philosophical inquiry into the nature of the difference between human beings and other animals, argues that it is the result of a complex sequence of events which began several million years ago with the evolution of the human hand. Possession of a fully developed hand profoundly transformed the relationship of the human being to its own body, thus altering the relationship between humans and the natural world. The interaction of the hand with the rest of the body brought about self-consciousness and laid the foundations for the unique sense of agency that is experienced by humans. Crucially, the hand inspired the tool-use that has come to dominate human life and which has led to the emergence of the complex symbolic systems - most importantly language - that underpin civilisation. The book also celebrates the hand in human life: the almost miraculous complexity of its manipulative, exploratory and communicative functions. Raymond Tallis combines philosophical reflection with a light-hearted look at gestures, the role of each finger, the origins of numbers - and the case for and against what he names 'handkind'. The Hand is the first of three volumes. The other titles are I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being and The Knowing Animal: A Philosophical Inquiry into Truth and Knowledge.

ISBN 0748617388   Pages 368 ISBN13 9780748617388 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Edinburgh University Press   Weight (grammes) 561 Imprint Edinburgh University Press   Published in Edinburgh Format Paperback   Previous ISBN 9780748617371 Publication date 15 Jul 2003   Height (mm) 234 Library of Congress BD418.3   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 128.6   Spine width (mm) 23 DEWEY edition DC21   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

Contents; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Overture; 1 Grasping the Hand; 1.1 Preliminary Grapplings; 1.2 The Manipulative Hand; 1.3 The Knowing Hand; 1.4 The Communicative Hand; 1.5 From Prehension to Apprehension; Part I Brachio-Chiral; 2 The Armed Hand; 2.1 Two Fingers to Over-digitisation; 2.2 The Genius of Reaching; 2.3 Mechanism and Agency; 3 The Talking Hand; 3.1 Introduction: The Sign-making Animal; 3.2 Gesturing; 3.3 Clapping and Other Hand Shouting; 3.4 Handsome; 4 Hand Talking to Hand; 4.1 Manucaption; 4.2 The Dialogue of the Left Hand with the Right; 4.3 The Interlocutors; 4.4 The Hand Talking to its Self or the Self; 5 The Playful Hand; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 The Carnal Hand; 5.3 Hand Games; 5.4 Post-script: Handy (like); Part II Chiro-Digital; 6 One-finger Exercises; 6.1 Introduction; 6.2 Thumb; 6.3 Index; 6.4 Middle; 6.5 Ring; 6.6 Little; 7 Polydactylic Exercises; 7.1 Introduction: The Ordeal of Precision; 7.2 Two Fingers; 7.3 Three Fingers; 7.4 Four Fingers; 7.5 Five Fingers; 7.6 Ten Fingers; 8 Abstract Digits; 8.1 Introduction and Disclaimer; 8.2 The Number Sense: From Magnitudes to Digits; 8.3 Digits and Digits; 8.4 Units: From Counting to Measurement; 8.5 The Unreasonable Power of the Precision of Abstract Digits; 9The Tool of Tools; 9.1 Prologue: The Self-shaping Hand; 9.2 Tool-using, Tool-making and the Tool of Tools; 9.3 Tools and the Origin of Human Culture; 9.4 Eolith and SuperCray; 9.5 Tools and Language; 9.6 Brain, Tools and Language; 9.7 Beyond Biology and Biologism; 9.8 Epilogue: Handicraft; Appendix: Karl Marx and the Collectivisation of; Human Consciousness in Tools; Part III Towards Chiro-Philosophy; 10 Getting and Grip on the Conscious Human Agent; 10.1 Recapitulation; 10.2 The Dawn of the Conscious Human Agent; 10.3 From Biology to Philosophical Anthropology; Coda; 11 Waving Farewell to the Hand; 11.1 Introduction; 11.2 The Paradox of Handyman: (1) Part of; and Separate from Nature; 11.3 The Paradox of the Handyman: (2) Subject to and Yet Manipulating Nature's Laws; 11.4 The Balance Sheet: (1) Knowledge. Does the Hand Grasp the Truth?; 11.5 The Balance Sheet: (2) Moral and Spiritual; 11.6 Handing On; 11.7 A Last Wave Farewell; Index.

It's hard to imagine any other book that could tell us so much about ourselves. Raymond Tallis is a man unusual in modern medicine. His career has been devoted to caring for, studying, and advancing the health of older people in society. But while working as a Professor of Geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, he has developed a parallel career - as a philosopher, critic, poet and novelist - largely unknown to his clinical brotherhood and sisterhood. Indeed, important though his medical work has been, it is likely that his philosophy, and especially his philosophical anthropology will leave a particularly indelible mark on human affairs. -- Richard Horton Compellingly interesting ! An extraordinary achievement. -- Michael Grant, editor of The Raymond Tallis Reader One of the most intriguing figures in the current intellectual scene. Tallis conjures up a challenging and endlessly fascinating way of thinking about ourselves that should act as a signpost for the future where we might learn once again to glimpse, as our forebears did, the wonder - and mystery - of ourselves.

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