ENGLISH

De La Mettrie's Ghost: The Story of Decisions

By Chris Nunn

Book information

Year
2005
ISBN
1403994951, 9781403994950, 9780230552210
Open Library ID
OL22636037M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
882 kB (903008 bytes)
Pages
248\239
Orientation
yes
Scanned
no
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

This book is about how we make choices. It is a compelling analysis of the nature of free will, drawing together evidence from chemistry, literature, politics, history and beyond. Psychiatrist Chris Nunn elegantly explores the revolutions in medicine, genetics, bioethics and neuroscience spurred by Julien de la Mettrie's 300-year-old tract Man the Machine. Nunn concludes that a mechanistic view of the human brain, though once fruitful, is now moribund. He proposes a powerful alternative: that stories, recorded in our memories throughout life, are the mediators of free choice. Nunn demonstrates how this original approach could reconcile the latest brain-imaging results and our seemingly contradictory intuition about decision making and responsibility.

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