Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"Brains Are Overrated"

The Times UK has an interesting article on a British author I have never heard of, Ramond Tallis. In his younger years, as an "angst-ridden adolescent, preoccupied with suffering, death and a fear of the meaninglessness of life," Tallis got interested in philosophy, including "Plato, Leibniz, Spinoza and his favourite, Heidegger." His latest work, The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head sounds rather interesting. Has anyone else heard of him and/or can tell me more about his work? His publications sound interesting and the topics he addresses seem to have a Heideggerian feel about them.

In a 2006 interview, Tallis makes a good Heideggerian claim when, in the paraphrase of the interviewer, he says, "it is the metaphysical dimension that makes us human - brains are not computers, they don't process "information" in the limited and technical sense that computers do, instead they support the existence of a person in a world of meaning and value." He may be someone to look into.

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