De La Mettrie's Ghost: The Story Of Decisions (Macmillan Science)

This book is about how we make choices. It is a compelling analysis of the nature of free will, drawing together evidence from chemistry, literature, politics, history and beyond. Psychiatrist Chris Nunn elegantly explores the revolutions in medicine, genetics, bioethics and neuroscience spurred by Julien de la Mettrie's 300-year-old tract Man the Machine . Nunn concludes that a mechanistic view of the human brain, though once fruitful, is now moribund. He proposes a powerful alternative: that stories, recorded in our memories throughout life, are the mediators of free choice. Nunn demonstrates how this original approach could reconcile the latest brain-imaging results and our seemingly contradictory intuition about decision making and responsibility. "This book is about how we make choices. It is an analysis of the nature of free will, drawing together evidence from physics, chemistry, literature, politics, history and beyond." "Psychiatrist Chris Nunn explores the revolutions in medicine, genetics, bioethics and neuroscience spurred by Julien de La Mettrie's 300-year-old tract Man the Machine. Nunn concludes that a mechanistic view of the human brain, though once fruitful, is now moribund." "He proposes a powerful alternative: that stories, recorded in our memories throughout life, are the mediators of free choice. Nunn demonstrates how this original approach could reconcile the latest brain-imaging results and our seemingly contradictory intuition about decision making and responsibility."--Jacket Contents......Page 6 Acknowledgements......Page 8 1 Introduction......Page 10 2 Back to basics......Page 16 3 Memory......Page 35 4 Free will and free won't......Page 47 5 Illusions of willing......Page 64 6 Susan's tale (Part I)......Page 74 7 Objects in mind......Page 83 8 More cognitive objects......Page 94 9 Weariness – Victorian and modern......Page 112 10 Good ideas......Page 127 11 Susan's tale (Part II)......Page 154 12 Stories and their people......Page 163 13 Of laws, physics and stories......Page 174 Epilogue: On being a story......Page 196 Notes......Page 202 References......Page 221 C......Page 230 D......Page 231 H......Page 232 M......Page 233 P......Page 234 S......Page 235 W......Page 236 Z......Page 237 This book is about how we make choices. Drawing together evidence from 21st century chemistry to Victorian politics, enlightenment philosophy, Roman drama and beyond, it is a compelling hunt for the nature of free will.