The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self: An Intellectual History of Personal Identity

Description

This book is satisfying at a number of levels. Anyone who has felt alienated by pondering how humans fit into the world will find it therapeutic. Not only is one not alone in such a quest, but it has a long history that one can learn about in this book and relate to. One can also learn from the countless mistakes of sincere others. Getting one's presupposing correct is a hard problem. This book presents a wealth of ways thinkers have tried to presuppose correctly, but failed. When one knows what doesn't work, then one is informed about trying something better. The book is also aesthetically satisfying. The protracted effort among generations of humans desperate for a means of making sense is brought into a panoramic view. This is very helpful. It is a vantage point from which one can view the future. What I found most satisfying, however, was the means presented for recovering a sense of sanity in thinking by locating the level at which a unity of thinking can be recovered. One can abandon arcane theories and backtrack a bit to recover unity within a biological context. This is good. If one has descended into despair over disintegrated theoretical accounts of the self, then the opportunity to ascend to a unified self within an explicitly biological context is an elevation of one's status. This effectively realizes the purpose for which the soul and the self were developed originally. Sept. 11, 2010 update: After investigating the unity of organisms with some disappointing results, I have discovered The Brain and the Meaning of Life which seems to be the right way forward. See especially Section 1 of Chapter 3: The Brain Revolution. Inner Presence: Consciousness as a Biological Phenomenon was also very constructive.