ABSTRACT
Crude materialism, reduction of mind to body, extreme individualism. All products of a 17th century scientific inheritance which looks at the parts of our existence at the expense of the whole.
Cutting through myths of scientific omnipotence, Mary Midgley explores how this inheritance has so powerfully shaped the way we are, and the problems it has brought with it. She argues that poetry and the arts can help reconcile these problems, and counteract generations of 'one-eyed specialists', unable and unwilling to look beyond their own scientific or literary sphere.
Dawkins, Atkins, Bacon and Descartes all come under fire as Midgely sears through contemporary debate, from Gaia to memes, and organic food to greenhouse gases. After years of unquestioned imperialism, science is finally forced to take a step back and acknowledge the arts.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |17 pages
Introduction
part |59 pages
Part Ivisions of Rationality
chapter 1|7 pages
The Sources of Thought
chapter 2|10 pages
Knowledge Considered as Weed-killer
chapter 3|9 pages
Rationality and Rainbows
chapter 4|12 pages
The Shape of Disillusion
chapter 6|9 pages
Memes and Other Unusual Life-forms
part |75 pages
Part Iimind And Body: The End Of Apartheid
chapter 7|7 pages
Putting Our Selves Together Again
chapter 8|11 pages
Living in the World
chapter 9|6 pages
The Strange Persistence Of Fatalism
chapter 10|8 pages
Chessboards and Presidents of the Immortals
chapter 11|9 pages
Doing Science on Purpose
chapter 12|8 pages
One World, But a Big One
chapter 13|14 pages
A Plague on Both Their Houses
chapter 14|10 pages
Being Scientific about Our Selves
part |53 pages
Part Iiiin What Kind Of World?