The Problem Of The Soul: Two Visions Of Mind And How To Reconcile Them

Owen Flanagan

ISBN 10: 0465024610 / ISBN 13: 9780465024612

Published by Basic Books (edition Revised ed.), 2003

About this Item

It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Seller Inventory # 0465024610-8-22

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Problem Of The Soul: Two Visions Of Mind And How To Reconcile Them
• Publisher: Basic Books (edition Revised ed.)
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465024610
• ISBN 13: 9780465024612
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Revised ed.
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Science has always created problems for traditional ways of seeing things, but now the very attributes that make us human -- free will, the permanence of personal identity, the existence of the soul -- are threatened by the science of the mind. If the mind is the brain, and therefore a physical object subject to deterministic laws, how can we have free will? If most of our thoughts and impulses are unconscious, how can we be morally responsible for what we do? If brains and bodies undergo relentless change, how can our identities be constant? The Problem of the Soul shows the way out of these paradoxes. Framing the conflict in terms of two dominant visions of the mind -- the "manifest image" of humanistic philosophy and theology, and the scientific image -- Owen Flanagan demonstrates that there is common ground, and that we need not give up our ideas of moral responsibility and personal freedom in order to have an empirically sound view of the human mind. This is a profoundly relevant work of philosophy for the common reader.

About the Author

Owen Flanagan is James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Chairman of the Philosophy Department at Duke University. The author of the classic Consciousness Reconsidered, he lives in Durham, North Carolina.