EGGHEAD CHOICE – Crack open for a hard boiled think

The mind-body problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind-body_dichotomy) is as old as philosophy itself. Modern science proceeds with the assumption that the category of subject matter under investigation is physical. How can this accommodate consciouness and mental causation, though? These seem not to be reducible. Qualia (the ‘felt experience’ of the conscious mind, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualia) seem particularly resistent. Jaegwon Kim (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaegwon_Kim) offers a fresh […]

This book (2008) has wonder in the title and is wonderful to read. Richard Holmes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Holmes_(biographer) is a biographer to trade and married to novelist Rose Tremain. This was his first major work of biography in over a decade. Holmes immerses us into the world where the Romantic spirit was being thrilled by the discoveries of science

Man, Beast and Zombie (2000) by Kenan Malik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Malik) investigates the historical roots, philosophical assumptions and alleged methodological problems of contemporary theories of human nature, in particular evolutionary psychology and cognitive science. Malik argues that, ‘The triumph of mechanistic explanations of human nature is as much the consequence of our culture’s loss of nerve as