| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
1 online resource (xvi, 463 pages) |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 435-450) and index. |
| Summary |
In 'Seeing Ourselves', philosopher and neuroscientist Raymond Tallis brings together the preoccupations of some fifty years of writing and thinking about the overwhelming mystery of ordinary human life, and goes in search of what kind of beings we are, and where we might find meaning in our lives.0If, asks Tallis, we reject the supernatural belief that we are pure spirits temporarily lodged in bodies, handmade by God, and uniquely related to Him, what should we put in its place? How do we ensure, if we accept the death of God, that something within us does not also die? And if we are simply organisms shaped by the forces of evolution, with no reason to exist and with no objective value, as some scientists claim, where shall we find meaning sufficiently enduring and profound to withstand the knowledge of our own mortality and the certain loss of all that we love or value? How should we think of ourselves if we are neither fallen angels trying to enact the will of God, nor unrisen apes acting out a biological prescription?0Tallis begins his quest by establishing what it is we know of our fundamental nature. Showcasing a remarkable detailed engagement with a huge range of disciplines, he examines our relationship to our own bodies, to time, our selfhood and our agency - all manifestations of the unique nature of human consciousness - and shows why human beings are like nothing else in the universe. Having revealed our nature in all its glory, Tallis then addresses what is unresolved in the human condition - our hunger for a coherent life, inwardly lit by a single sense of purpose and meaning - and the search for something that matches the profundity of religion, even to the point of accommodating the tragedy of our lives. He shows that it is the actuality of human transcendence and the needs it awakens that must be the bridge across the divide between believers and non-believers. |
| Contents |
Part I Overture -- Chapter 1 Humanism and anti-humanism -- Part II Our Human Being -- Chapter 2 Against naturalism: neither ape nor angel -- Addendum: Some observations on animal cognition: making it tougher for killjoys -- Chapter 3 I am and it is: persons and organisms -- Addendum Ambodiment: the I and the it -- Chapter 4 Human being: in and out of time -- Chapter 5 The elusive, inescapable self -- Chapter 6 The mystery of human agency -- Chapter 7 Humanity against finitude: transhumanist dreams -- Part III Flourishing without God -- Chapter 8 "The sky is empty" -- Chapter 9 Meaning and purpose -- Chapter 10 Reclaiming ourselves -- Epilogue: an inconclusion -- Notes -- References -- Index. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
Philosophical anthropology.
|
|
Philosophical anthropology. |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
|
Electronic books.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Tallis, Raymond. Seeing ourselves. First edition. Newcastle upon Tyne : Agenda Publishing, 2020 9781788212311 (OCoLC)1121099994 |
| ISBN |
9781788212328 (electronic book) |
|
1788212320 (electronic book) |
|
9781788212311 |
|
1788212312 |
|
