The Brain and the Meaning of Life

Paul Thagard

Published by Princeton University Press 2010

The Brain and the Meaning of Life

Paul Thagard

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400834617

Overview
Contents

About this book

Why is life worth living? What makes actions right or wrong? What is reality and how do we know it? The Brain and the Meaning of Life draws on research in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to answer some of the most pressing questions about life's nature and value. Paul Thagard argues that evidence requires the abandonment of many traditional ideas about the soul, free will, and immortality, and shows how brain science matters for fundamental issues about reality, morality, and the meaning of life. The ongoing Brain Revolution reveals how love, work, and play provide good reasons for living.

Defending the superiority of evidence-based reasoning over religious faith and philosophical thought experiments, Thagard argues that minds are brains and that reality is what science can discover. Brains come to know reality through a combination of perception and reasoning. Just as important, our brains evaluate aspects of reality through emotions that can produce both good and bad decisions. Our cognitive and emotional abilities allow us to understand reality, decide effectively, act morally, and pursue the vital needs of love, work, and play. Wisdom consists of knowing what matters, why it matters, and how to achieve it.

The Brain and the Meaning of Life shows how brain science helps to answer questions about the nature of mind and reality, while alleviating anxiety about the difficulty of life in a vast universe. The book integrates decades of multidisciplinary research, but its clear explanations and humor make it accessible to the general reader.

Author / Editor information

Paul Thagard is professor of philosophy and director of the cognitive science program at the University of Waterloo, Canada. His books include Hot Thought: Mechanisms and Applications of Emotional Cognition and How Scientists Explain Disease.

Reviews

"Engagingly written for general readers, Thagard's book provides a nice description of current knowledge about the brain and explains how brain research bears on philosophical issues."—Gilbert Harman, Princeton University

[Thagard] offers a tightly reasoned, often humorous, and original contribution to the emerging practice of applying science to areas heretofore the province of philosophers, theologians, ethicists, and politicians: What is reality and how can we know it? Are mind and brain one or two? What is the source of the sense of self? What is love? What is the difference between right and wrong, and how can we know it? What is the most legitimate form of government? What is the meaning of life, and how can we find happiness in it? Thagard employs the latest tools and findings of science in his attempts to answer these (and additional) questions.---Michael Shermer, Science

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011

Thagard has published a string of distinguished books and papers on reasoning and scientific explanation, and was a pioneer in using cognitive science to study the way scientists think. The sections on reasoning bear the imprint of this work, and pack a lot of philosophy into a short span.---Dominic Murphy, Australian Review of Public Affairs

[R]eaders will find much of the author's advice to be beneficial. The book contains many good suggestions for making one's life better including advice on how to be happier and how to make good decisions, all based on solid research in psychology and neuroscience. For anyone who is curious about current research in these fields, Thagard's book provides an accessible introduction to important concepts and theories.---Margery Lucas, Society

"The Brain and the Meaning of Life provides a highly informed account of the relevance of recent neuroscience to human life. It compellingly tells how humans, as biological creatures in a physical world, can find meaning and value."—William Bechtel, University of California, San Diego

The name of this well-written and ambitious book understates the breadth of its scope. The book deals with the relation of modern neuroscience not only to the meaning of life, but also to ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. . . . The discussion is rich, unorthodox, and frequently exciting.---Iddo Landau, Metapsychology Online Reviews

A thoughtful and well-researched attempt to answer that most fundamental existential question: why not kill yourself? Or, to give it a positive spin, what gives life meaning? Thagard lays out detailed arguments that reality is knowable through science, that minds are nothing other than material brains and that there are no ultimate rights and wrongs handed down by a supernatural being.

Thagard's 'neural naturalism' promises nothing short of a conceptual revolution, or better, a paradigm shift. His evidence-based strategy uses the data from psychology and neuroscience to expose empirically based answers to questions such as, What is the meaning of life? What ought one to do? . . . Thagard's reader-friendly text includes a glossary, endnotes, and extensive references.

The book integrates decades of multidisciplinary research, but its clear explanations and humor make it accessible to the general reader.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xv
Chapter One. We All Need Wisdom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter Two. Evidence Beats Faith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
Chapter Three. Minds are Brains Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
Chapter Four. How Brains Know Reality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Chapter Five. How Brains Feel Emotions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
Chapter Six. How Brains Decide Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Chapter Seven. Why Life Is Worth Living Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Chapter Eight. Needs and Hopes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	168
Chapter Nine. Ethical Brains Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
Chapter Ten. Making Sense Of It All Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
References Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271

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