Soul Fallacy
eBook - ePub

Soul Fallacy

What Science Shows We Gain From Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Soul Fallacy

What Science Shows We Gain From Letting Go of Our Soul Beliefs

About this book

Most Americans believe they possess an immaterial soul that will survive the death of the body. In sharp contrast, the current scientific consensus rejects the traditional soul, although this conclusion is rarely discussed publicly. In this book, a cognitive scientist breaks the taboo and explains why modern science leads to this controversial conclusion. In doing so, the book reveals the truly astonishing scope and power of scientific inquiry, drawing on ideas from biology, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the physical sciences. Much more than chronicling the demise of the traditional soul, the book explores where soul beliefs come from, why they are so widespread culturally and historically, how cognitive science offers a naturalistic alternative to religious conceptions of mind, and how postulating the existence of a soul amounts to making a scientific claim. Although the new scientific view of personhood departs radically from traditional religious conceptions, the author shows that a coherent, meaningful, and sensitive appreciation of what it means to be human remains intact. He argues that we do not lose anything by letting go of our soul beliefs and that we even have something to gain. Throughout, the book takes a passionate stand for science and reason. It also offers a timely rejoinder to recent claims that science supports the existence of the soul and the afterlife.

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Yes, you can access Soul Fallacy by Julien Musolino in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Cognitive Psychology & Cognition. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword
  6. Preface
  7. Chapter 1: Lifting the Veil
  8. Chapter 2: The Spirit of the Age
  9. Chapter 3: The First Principle
  10. Chapter 4: Dualism on Trial
  11. Chapter 5: Requiem for the Soul
  12. Chapter 6: La Mettrie's Revenge
  13. Chapter 7: Descartes's Shadow
  14. Chapter 8: The Sum of All Fears
  15. Chapter 9: Imagine
  16. Notes
  17. Bibliography
  18. Index
  19. About the Author