Consciousness: Neuromania & Darwinitis (Raymond Tallis)

source: Philosophical Overdose    2013年1月18日
In this talk, Professor Raymond Tallis argues against what he calls Neuromania & Darwinitis regarding consciousness, free will, the self, values, and intentionality. According to Tallis, Neuromania is based on the incorrect notion that human consciousness is identical with activity in the brain, that people are their brains, and that societies are best understood as collections of brains. Although the brain is a necessary condition of every aspect of human consciousness, it is not a sufficient condition -- which is why neuroscience, and the materialist philosophy upon which it is based, fails to capture the human person. And since the brain is an evolved organism, Neuromania leads to Darwinitis, the assumption that, since Darwin demonstrated the biological origins of the organism Homo sapiens, we should look to evolutionary theory to understand what we are now; that our biological roots explain our cultures leaves.




This talk was given at the University of Hertfordshire.