An "elegant", "engrossing" (Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal) examination of what we think we know about the brain and why -- despite technological advances -- the workings of our most essential organ remain a mystery. "I cannot recommend this book strongly enough."--Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we still have only the vaguest idea of how the brain works. In The Idea of the Brain, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb traces how our conception of the brain has evolved over the centuries. Although it might seem to be a story of ever-increasing knowledge of biology, Cobb shows how our ideas about the brain have been shaped by each era's most significant technologies. Today we might think the brain is like a supercomputer. In the past, it has been compared to a telegraph, a telephone exchange, or some kind of hydraulic system. What will we think the brain is like tomorrow, when new technology arises? The result is an essential read for anyone interested in the complex processes that drive science and the forces that have shaped our marvelous brains.

First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It is not far-fetched to say that much of what is termed “African metaphysics” remains a traditional affair, without the sort of critical analysis that sheds away the burden of myths and ethnocentric rigidity. African ideas about the nature of being, God, causality, death, etc., have largely remained the same and unchallenged, mainly due to the hesitancy of some African scholars to question these suppositions or build beyond them. In this book, Aribiah David Attoe presents a unified African metaphysics that first interrogates important notions held by many traditional African thinkers, and then builds upon them to propose a largely materialistic account of African metaphysics. The book re-imagines and reconstructs the idea of God, being, causality and death in African metaphysics, tackling some of the problems associated with these concepts in African thought. It also opens up new vistas of thought, while engaging and encouraging African metaphysicians to explore a previously ignored perspective.

This book is a response to Antonio Damasio’s Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow and the Feeling Brain. Damasio, a prominent neuroscientist, begins by explaining what the latest discoveries in the neurosciences tell us about human psychology. He rejects the two prominent models of human psychology since the Western Enlightenment, the blank slate and dualism. Instead, says Damasio, we now know that the brain and body are completely integrated through a complex system of neural maps. Damasio’s recognition of the complete unity of body, brain and mind leads him to the conclusion that we have to develop ideas and ideas of ideas and use them to reform our neural maps. This book presents Damasio’s own ideas about the most “serious” questions in life that we ought to use to reform ourselves and our societies, including homeostasis; spirituality; feelings; suffering and death; the value of religious traditions; and the value of the philosophical path to God among others. The book presents additional positions on the same serious questions from perspectives that it is hoped Damasio will consider adding to or, in some cases, replacing, his position. Most of the book is a discussion of many aspects of Ancient Greek culture, showing how it developed into a complex cultural system that aimed to create exactly the kind of integrated system of neural maps that Damasio claims is so important for us today. As such, this book strives to contribute to our collective need to reform our system of education based on our new understanding of the nature of the human psyche.