THEY had it easy in the 17th century, says philosopher Mary Midgley. Then,
the pioneers of modern science deliberately chose to confine their attention to
the physical world of perceived reality, evading what Midgley calls 鈥渢he
problem鈥hat each of us has in trying to relate our own individual experience
sensibly to that of others and to the official views of our society鈥�. By leaving
this challenge to dramatists, novelists and philosophers, science streamlined
its enterprise and has made it to the Moon and beyond. But as the neurosciences
and related disciplines probe more deeply into the human brain, they find
themselves bumping up uncomfortably against notions such as consciousness, free
will and meaning, intimations of that other frontier.
In From Brains to Consciousness (Allen Lane, 拢25, ISBN
0713991674), biologist Steven Rose brings together neuroscientists,
psychiatrists, mathematicians, computer scientists, philosophers and
pharmacologists, Midgley among them. There is a sense here of science as the
prodigal son returning, puzzled and slightly dazed, ready to admit that Old
Father Philosophy might be worth chatting to after all.
The contributions are gloriously varied and often at odds with each other.
Particularly good are Richard Bentall鈥檚 devastating and humorous deconstruction
of the whole notion of schizophrenia, and Midgley鈥檚 thoughtful overview of the
problems of researching consciousness.
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Rose deserves credit for this stuff鈥攁 meeting of mindsets that could
just be the start of a beautiful friendship.