Mind-Body Problems: Science, Subjectivity & Who We Really Are

Science journalist John Horgan presents an exhilarating new view of life’s knottiest mystery, the mind-body problem. In a narrow, technical sense, the mind-body problem asks how matter makes mind, but it’s really about who we are, can be and should be, individually and as a species. For millennia, prophets, philosophers and poets have told us who we are, but their answers conflict. Modern scientists claim they are on the verge of resolving our primordial identity crisis by finding a single, objectively true solution to the mind-body problem. Mind-Body Problems challenges this claim, arguing that we all face our own mind-body problems and must find our own solutions. Horgan dramatizes this theme by telling the stories of mind-body experts whose views have been shaped by madness, a brain tumor, sexual confusion and the death of loved ones. He weaves these tales into a compelling narrative about human freedom. If the mind-body problem has no final answer, we can discover ourselves, and create ourselves, forever.