Tallis, Raymond (Author)
Acumen Publishers
Physical Details: xi + 388 pp.; bibl.; index
Language: English
In a devastating critique Raymond Tallis exposes the exaggerated claims made for the ability of neuroscience and evolutionary theory to explain human consciousness, behaviour, culture and society. While readily acknowledging the astounding progress neuroscience has made in helping us understand how the brain works, Tallis directs his guns at neuroscience's dark companion -- Neuromania as he describes it -- the belief that brain activity is not merely a necessary but a sufficient condition for human consciousness and that consequently our everyday behaviour can be entirely understood in neural terms. With the formidable acuity and precision of both clinician and philosopher, Tallis dismantles the idea that we are our brains, which has given rise to a plethora of neuro-prefixed pseudo-disciplines laying claim to explain everything from art and literature to criminality and religious belief, and shows it to be confused and fallacious, and an abuse of the prestige of science, one that sidesteps a whole range of mind--body problems. The belief that human beings can be understood essentially in biological terms is a serious obstacle, argues Tallis, to clear thinking about what human beings are and what they might become. To explain everyday behaviour in Darwinian terms and to identify human consciousness with the activity of the evolved brain denies human uniqueness, and by minimising the differences between us and our nearest animal kin, misrepresents what we are, offering a grotesquely simplified and degrading account of humanity. We are, shows Tallis, infinitely more interesting and complex than we appear in the mirror of biologism. Combative, fearless and always thought-provoking, Aping Mankind is an important book, one that scientists, cultural commentators and policy-makers cannot ignore.
...MoreReview Vidal, Fernando (2012) Review of "Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 628-629).
Similar Citations
Article
Cornelius Borck;
(2016)
How we may think: Imaging and writing technologies across the history of the neurosciences
(/isis/citation/CBB917883611/)
Article
Abi-Rached, Joelle M.;
Rose, Nikolas;
(2010)
The Birth of the Neuromolecular Gaze
(/isis/citation/CBB000953789/)
Article
Kaplan, Stephen;
(2009)
Grasping at Ontological Straws: Overcoming Reductionism in the Advaita Vedānta---Neuroscience Dialogue
(/isis/citation/CBB001030735/)
Book
Antonella Tramacere;
(2023)
Introduzione alle psicologie evoluzionistiche: L'origine della mente umana tra scienza e filosofia
(/isis/citation/CBB137148303/)
Article
Emily Herring;
(2016)
Des évolutionnismes sans mécanisme. Les néolamarckismes métaphysiques d’Albert Vandel (1894-1980) et Pierre-Paul Grassé (1895-1985)
(/isis/citation/CBB828190799/)
Book
Silva, Ignacio Alberto;
(2014)
Latin American Perspectives on Science and Religion
(/isis/citation/CBB001422634/)
Article
Marta Vassallo;
Mario Picozzi;
(2023)
Managing brain-hype: understanding and discriminating overemphasized brain-based allegations
(/isis/citation/CBB605434145/)
Book
Peter A. Bandettini;
(2020)
fMRI
(/isis/citation/CBB645468002/)
Article
Ute Deichmann;
(2017)
Hierarchy, Determinism, and Specificity in Theories of Development and Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB808879921/)
Article
Alessio Plebe;
(2018)
The Search of “Canonical” Explanations for the Cerebral Cortex
(/isis/citation/CBB473323388/)
Article
Vivek Verma;
Keerthana Samanthapudi;
Ratujit Raviprakash;
(2016)
Classic Studies on the Potential of Stem Cell Neuroregeneration
(/isis/citation/CBB916680462/)
Article
Cory Wright;
Matteo Colombo;
Alexander Beard;
(2017)
HIT and brain reward function: A case of mistaken identity (theory)
(/isis/citation/CBB272128790/)
Article
Mark Elam;
(2015)
How the Brain Disease Paradigm Remoralizes Addictive Behaviour
(/isis/citation/CBB789369122/)
Chapter
Dahan Dalmédico, Amy;
(2004)
Chaos, Disorder, and Mixing: A New Fin-de-siécle Image of Science?
(/isis/citation/CBB000502025/)
Chapter
Stephen P. Weldon;
(2015)
Historians and Their Data
(/isis/citation/CBB944568735/)
Article
Casper, Stephen T.;
(2014)
History and Neurosciece: An Interactive Legacy
(/isis/citation/CBB001321208/)
Book
Carsten Strathausen;
(2017)
Bioaesthetics: Making Sense of Life in Science and the Arts
(/isis/citation/CBB999637745/)
Article
Thomas A. C. Reydon;
Markus Scholz;
(2015)
Searching for Darwinism in Generalized Darwinism
(/isis/citation/CBB384666113/)
Article
Bearman, Alan;
(2009)
Kansas vs. Darwin: A Documentary about the Kansas Evolution Hearings/Fall From Grace
(/isis/citation/CBB001030765/)
Article
Richardson, Angelique;
(2010)
Darwin and Reductionisms: Victorian, Neo-Darwinian and Postgenomic Biologies
(/isis/citation/CBB001022449/)
Be the first to comment!