Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity

401 Pages·2011·2.74 MB·English

by  Raymond Tallis

ACUMEN
Aping Mankind
“Impassioned and intensely erudite.” dominic lawson, Sunday Times
“With erudition, wit and rigour, Tallis reveals that much of our current wisdom
is as silly as bumps-on-the-head phrenology.” jane o’grady, Th e Observer
“A trenchant, lucid and witty attack on the reductive materialism of many
scientifi c accounts of consciousness – not from a religious point of view, but
that of an atheist humanist with a distinguished record in medicine and neuro-
science.” david lodge, Th e Guardian
“A really, enjoyably, angry rebuttal of the ‘neurotrash’ of speculative brain
science. It does not detract from the work of serious neuroscience to have
some of its contemporary pretensions punctured by one of its own practi-
tioners. Th is is a necessary corrective.” alexander linklater, Th e Observer
“Neuroscience, we are implausibly informed, will help dispense with evil. Who
better to debunk its pretensions while instructing us in its uses than wise,
literate Raymond Tallis, a neuroscientist himself, in his entertaining Aping
Mankind.” george walden, Evening Standard
“Th is kind of personhood – the capacity, in fact the compulsion, to bring things
together into some kind of coherent narrative, without which experience is not
just senseless, but almost impossible, is what Tallis believes science cannot
now explain. Anyone tempted to suppose that science has explained it even in
principle – and that means almost all of us – should read him, and realise we’re
wrong.” andrew brown, Th e Guardian
“An all-out assault on the exaggerated claims made on behalf of the biological
sciences … an important work. Tallis is right to point out that a fundamental
shift in our self-perception is under way and frequently going too far.”
stephen cave, Financial Times
“Witty and fi lled with aphorisms, Aping Mankind is a powerful and angry
response to neurological and evolutionary reductionism as accounts of human
nature and human accomplishments. [Tallis’s] defence of human unique-
ness and his attack of the grotesquely simplifi ed and degrading accounts of
humanity that are ingenuously or disingenuously off ered in many scholarly
circles these days are welcome and worthy.”
andrew scull, Times Literary Supplement
“A pleasure to read … Tallis is fi ghting for a good cause.”
willem b. drees, Times Higher Education Supplement
“A terrifi c book, though readers must be prepared to read it at least twice,
not because it is in any sense obscure, but fully to appreciate the richness and
subtlety of Tallis’s novel insights, with all their implications for our under-
standing of humanity’s precious attributes of freedom, intentionality and moral
responsibility.” james le fanu, Th e Tablet
“A provocative, fascinating, and deeply paradoxical book … Tallis displays a wit
and a turn of phrase which often made me howl with laughter.”
allan chapman, Church Times
“A welcome corrective to what Tallis calls the ‘bold rush’ of biologism. An
important and thought-provoking book.” Philosophy Now
“Brilliantly written … renowned polymath Raymond Tallis puts the picture
back into much clearer perspective in his scathing exposé of neuroscientifi c
narcissism.” Human Givens
“… a relentless assertion of common sense against a delusive but entrenched
academic orthodoxy. Few books evince their authors’ complete mastery of his
subject like Aping Mankind.” Th e New English Review
“A major and erudite statement of a position that is intellectually, morally and
spiritually of the fi rst importance to us living now.” roger scruton
“A splendid book. Tallis is right to say that current attempts to explain major
elements of human life by brain-talk are fearfully misguided. He is exceptional
in having both the philosophical grasp to understand what is wrong here and
the scientifi c knowledge to expose it fully. He documents the gravity of this
menace with real fi re, venom and humour.” mary midgley
“A wonderful book and an important book, one that all neuroscientists should
read. Tallis’s fearless criticism of the work of some distinguished contemporary
academics and scientists and the rather ludicrous experimental paradigms of
fMRI work needs to be made.” simon shorvon, UCL Institute of Neurology
“Th ere are few contemporary thinkers who possess either the breadth of Ray
Tallis’s knowledge or the depth of his scholarship. Th ere are fewer still who can
write so cogently and insightfully about the human condition.” kenan malik
Aping Mankind
NEUROMANIA, DARWINITIS AND
THE MISREPRESENTATION OF HUMANITY
Raymond Tallis
Acumen
© Raymond Tallis 2011
Th is book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
Th e right of Raymond Tallis to be identifi ed as the author of this Work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2011 by Acumen
First paperback edition 2012
Acumen Publishing Limited
4 Saddler Street
Durham
DH1 3NP, UK
IDS, 70 Enterprise Drive
Bristol, CT 06010, USA
www.acumenpublishing.com
isbn: 978-1-84465-272-3 (hardcover)
978-1-84465-273-0 (paperback)
cover: Le singe peintre by Jean Baptiste Deshays (1729–65),
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen. © 2011 White Images/Scala, Florence.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Printed and bound in the UK by MPG Books Group.
For Ben, Laurence and Terry, with my love

Man need not be degraded to a machine by being denied to be a
ghost in a machine. He might, after all, be a sort of animal, namely
a higher mammal. Th ere has yet to be ventured the hazardous
leap to the hypothesis that perhaps he is man.
Gilbert Ryle, Th e Concept of Mind

Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction: Th e Strange Case of Professor Gray and
Other Provocations 1
1 Science and Scientism 15
2 Consequences 51
3 Neuromania: A Castle Built on Sand 73
4 From Darwinism to Darwinitis 147
5 Bewitched by Language 183
6 Th e Sighted Watchmaker 209
7 Reaffi rming our Humanity 243
8 Defending the Humanities 277
9 Back to the Drawing Board 337
References 363
Index 379
ix