The Explicit Animal: A Defence of Human Consciousness [Paperback]

Criticizes attempts to biologize consciousness by explaining its origin in evolutionary terms and identifying mental phenomena with brain processes, to computerize it by identifying mind with the supposed computational activity of the brain, and to eliminate it by denying the reality of qualia.Acknowledgements Preface to the 1993 Reprint Overture Losing Consciousness Biologising Consciousness I: Evolutionary Theories Biologising Consciousness II: The Casual Theory of Perception Appendix: The Language of Neuromythology with Special Reference to 'Information' Computerising Consciousness Emptying Consciousness: Functionalism Man, the Explicit Animal Recovering Consciousness Notes and References Index

'There may be other professors of geriatric medecine who have chosen to write down their views on life, the universe and everything...Raymond Tallis is unusual in that he is philosophically well educated and alert; his books are genuine contributions to professional debate and must be assessed as such. It is, of course, acutely irritating that someone with a different professional competence should have read more widely, and more attentively, in one's own field than oneself; even more irritating that there are no obvious misreadings...It is to be hoped that Raymond Tallis finds time, amid his professorial and clinical duties, to continue the exploration.' - Professor Stephen Clark, Times Literary Supplement

From the reviews of Enemies of Hope:

'`Tallis....is a high achiever with a range of expertise that would leave Jonathan Miller gasping' - Walter Ellis, The Sunday Times

'As its title and length indicate, this is a Big Book. It is written, nevertheless, in a clear, accessible, unpretentious and often witty style. And as anyone familiar with Raymond Tallis's other similar works will know, it has important things to say....there is about his panoptic sweep an intrepidity, a candour and open-mindedness, lÃâ