Touching A Nerve Our Brains Our Selves

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Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves

Author : Patricia Churchland
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393240630
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves by : Patricia Churchland

Download or read book Touching a Nerve: Our Brains, Our Selves written by Patricia Churchland and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A trailblazing philosopher’s exploration of the latest brain science—and its ethical and practical implications. What happens when we accept that everything we feel and think stems not from an immaterial spirit but from electrical and chemical activity in our brains? In this thought-provoking narrative—drawn from professional expertise as well as personal life experiences—trailblazing neurophilosopher Patricia S. Churchland grounds the philosophy of mind in the essential ingredients of biology. She reflects with humor on how she came to harmonize science and philosophy, the mind and the brain, abstract ideals and daily life. Offering lucid explanations of the neural workings that underlie identity, she reveals how the latest research into consciousness, memory, and free will can help us reexamine enduring philosophical, ethical, and spiritual questions: What shapes our personalities? How do we account for near-death experiences? How do we make decisions? And why do we feel empathy for others? Recent scientific discoveries also provide insights into a fascinating range of real-world dilemmas—for example, whether an adolescent can be held responsible for his actions and whether a patient in a coma can be considered a self. Churchland appreciates that the brain-based understanding of the mind can unnerve even our greatest thinkers. At a conference she attended, a prominent philosopher cried out, “I hate the brain; I hate the brain!” But as Churchland shows, he need not feel this way. Accepting that our brains are the basis of who we are liberates us from the shackles of superstition. It allows us to take ourselves seriously as a product of evolved mechanisms, past experiences, and social influences. And it gives us hope that we can fix some grievous conditions, and when we cannot, we can at least understand them with compassion.

Touching a Nerve

Author : Patricia Churchland
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393058328
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Touching a Nerve by : Patricia Churchland

Download or read book Touching a Nerve written by Patricia Churchland and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the latest research in human brain function, consciousness, sensory experience, and memory, and discusses the ethical and philosophical dilemmas that can result from these new insights.

Touching a Nerve

Author : Patricia Smith Churchland
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Touching a Nerve by : Patricia Smith Churchland

Download or read book Touching a Nerve written by Patricia Smith Churchland and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Braintrust

Author : Patricia S. Churchland
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691180970
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Braintrust by : Patricia S. Churchland

Download or read book Braintrust written by Patricia S. Churchland and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the "neurobiological platform of bonding" that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior. The result is a provocative genealogy of morals that asks us to reevaluate the priority given to religion, absolute rules, and pure reason in accounting for the basis of morality. Moral values, Churchland argues, are rooted in a behavior common to all mammals--the caring for offspring. The evolved structure, processes, and chemistry of the brain incline humans to strive not only for self-preservation but for the well-being of allied selves--first offspring, then mates, kin, and so on, in wider and wider "caring" circles. Separation and exclusion cause pain, and the company of loved ones causes pleasure; responding to feelings of social pain and pleasure, brains adjust their circuitry to local customs. In this way, caring is apportioned, conscience molded, and moral intuitions instilled. A key part of the story is oxytocin, an ancient body-and-brain molecule that, by decreasing the stress response, allows humans to develop the trust in one another necessary for the development of close-knit ties, social institutions, and morality. A major new account of what really makes us moral, Braintrust challenges us to reconsider the origins of some of our most cherished values.

Conscience

Author : Patricia Churchland
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1324000899
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Conscience by : Patricia Churchland

Download or read book Conscience written by Patricia Churchland and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do we determine right from wrong? Conscience illuminates the answer through science and philosophy. In her brilliant work Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, drew from scientific research on the brain to understand its philosophical and ethical implications for identity, consciousness, free will, and memory. In Conscience, she explores how moral systems arise from our physical selves in combination with environmental demands. All social groups have ideals for behavior, even though ethics vary among different cultures and among individuals within each culture. In trying to understand why, Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of nature and nurture. She looks to evolution to elucidate how, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to cooperate, and to care. She shows how children grow up in society to learn, through repetition and rewards, the norms, values, and behavior that their parents embrace. Conscience delves into scientific studies, particularly the fascinating work on twins, to deepen our understanding of whether people have a predisposition to embrace specific ethical stands. Research on psychopaths illuminates the knowledge about those who abide by no moral system and the explanations science gives for these disturbing individuals. Churchland then turns to philosophy—that of Socrates, Aquinas, and contemporary thinkers like Owen Flanagan—to explore why morality is central to all societies, how it is transmitted through the generations, and why different cultures live by different morals. Her unparalleled ability to join ideas rarely put into dialogue brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human.

Brain-Wise

Author : Patricia S. Churchland
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262532006
Total Pages : 494 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Brain-Wise by : Patricia S. Churchland

Download or read book Brain-Wise written by Patricia S. Churchland and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2002-10-02 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Progress in the neurosciences is profoundly changing our conception of ourselves. Contrary to time-honored intuition, the mind turns out to be a complex of brain functions. And contrary to the wishful thinking of some philosophers, there is no stemming the revolutionary impact that brain research will have on our understanding of how the mind works. Brain-Wise is the sequel to Patricia Smith Churchland's Neurophilosophy, the book that launched a subfield. In a clear, conversational manner, this book examines old questions about the nature of the mind within the new framework of the brain sciences. What, it asks, is the neurobiological basis of consciousness, the self, and free choice? How does the brain learn about the external world and about its own introspective world? What can neurophilosophy tell us about the basis and significance of religious and moral experiences? Drawing on results from research at the neuronal, neurochemical, system, and whole-brain levels, the book gives an up-to-date perspective on the state of neurophilosophy—what we know, what we do not know, and where things may go from here.

Touch

Author : David J. Linden
Publisher : Penguin Books
ISBN 13 : 0143128442
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Touch by : David J. Linden

Download or read book Touch written by David J. Linden and published by Penguin Books. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Compass of Pleasure" examines how our sense of touch is interconnected with our emotions Dual-function receptors in our skin make mint feel cool and chili peppers hot.

The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain

Author : Kevin Nelson
Publisher : Penguin Group
ISBN 13 : 0452297583
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (522 download)

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Book Synopsis The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain by : Kevin Nelson

Download or read book The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain written by Kevin Nelson and published by Penguin Group. This book was released on 2012-02-28 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Bold, provocative, and highly readable." -V. S. Ramachandran, M.D., author of Phantoms in the Brain What are near-death experiences, out-of-body sensations, and spiritual ecstasy? And what do they have in common? Perhaps no one is more qualified to answer these questions than renowned neurobiologist Dr. Kevin Nelson. Drawing on his more than three decades of groundbreaking research into the "borderlands of consciousness," Dr. Nelson offers an unprecedented journey into the site of spiritual experience: the brain. Filled with amazing firsthand accounts as varied as a patient seeing the devil battling with his guardian angel to a man watching the universe synchronize around a pinball machine, The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain is an eloquent examination of our brains' spiritual "hardwiring" that will enthrall believers and skeptics alike.

The Ravenous Brain

Author : Daniel Bor
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465032966
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Ravenous Brain by : Daniel Bor

Download or read book The Ravenous Brain written by Daniel Bor and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh’s starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven’s Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine: philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science. In The Ravenous Brain, neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and builds on the latest research to propose a new model for how consciousness works. Bor argues that this brain-based faculty evolved as an accelerated knowledge gathering tool. Consciousness is effectively an idea factory—that choice mental space dedicated to innovation, a key component of which is the discovery of deep structures within the contents of our awareness. This model explains our brains’ ravenous appetite for information—and in particular, its constant search for patterns. Why, for instance, after all our physical needs have been met, do we recreationally solve crossword or Sudoku puzzles? Such behavior may appear biologically wasteful, but, according to Bor, this search for structure can yield immense evolutionary benefits—it led our ancestors to discover fire and farming, pushed modern society to forge ahead in science and technology, and guides each one of us to understand and control the world around us. But the sheer innovative power of human consciousness carries with it the heavy cost of mental fragility. Bor discusses the medical implications of his theory of consciousness, and what it means for the origins and treatment of psychiatric ailments, including attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression, and autism. All mental illnesses, he argues, can be reformulated as disorders of consciousness—a perspective that opens up new avenues of treatment for alleviating mental suffering. A controversial view of consciousness, The Ravenous Brain links cognition to creativity in an ingenious solution to one of science’s biggest mysteries.

Out of Our Heads

Author : Alva Noë
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1429957190
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Out of Our Heads by : Alva Noë

Download or read book Out of Our Heads written by Alva Noë and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2010-02-02 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alva Noë is one of a new breed—part philosopher, part cognitive scientist, part neuroscientist—who are radically altering the study of consciousness by asking difficult questions and pointing out obvious flaws in the current science. In Out of Our Heads, he restates and reexamines the problem of consciousness, and then proposes a startling solution: Do away with the two hundred-year-old paradigm that places consciousness within the confines of the brain. Our culture is obsessed with the brain—how it perceives; how it remembers; how it determines our intelligence, our morality, our likes and our dislikes. It's widely believed that consciousness itself, that Holy Grail of science and philosophy, will soon be given a neural explanation. And yet, after decades of research, only one proposition about how the brain makes us conscious—how it gives rise to sensation, feeling, and subjectivity—has emerged unchallenged: We don't have a clue. In this inventive work, Noë suggests that rather than being something that happens inside us, consciousness is something we do. Debunking an outmoded philosophy that holds the scientific study of consciousness captive, Out of Our Heads is a fresh attempt at understanding our minds and how we interact with the world around us.

Mind Shift

Author : John Parrington
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0192521640
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (925 download)

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Book Synopsis Mind Shift by : John Parrington

Download or read book Mind Shift written by John Parrington and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Parrington argues that social interaction and culture have deeply shaped the exceptional nature of human consciousness. The mental capacities of the human mind far outstrip those of other animals. Our imaginations and creativity have produced art, music, and literature; built bridges and cathedrals; enabled us to probe distant galaxies, and to ponder the meaning of our existence. When our minds become disordered, they can also take us to the depths of despair. What makes the human brain unique, and able to generate such a rich mental life? In this book, John Parrington draws on the latest research on the human brain to show how it differs strikingly from those of other animals in its structure and function at a molecular and cellular level. And he argues that this 'shift', enlarging the brain, giving it greater flexibility and enabling higher functions such as imagination, was driven by tool use, but especially by the development of one remarkable tool - language. The complex social interaction brought by language opened up the possibility of shared conceptual worlds, enriched with rhythmic sounds, and images that could be drawn on cave walls. This transformation enabled modern humans to leap rapidly beyond all other species, and generated an exceptional human consciousness, a sense of self that arises as a product of our brain biology and the social interactions we experience. Our minds, even those of identical twins, are unique because they are the result of this extraordinarily plastic brain, exquisitely shaped and tuned by the social and cultural environment in which we grew up and to which we continue to respond through life. Linking early work by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky to the findings of modern neuroscience, Parrington explores how language, culture, and society mediate brain function, and what this view of the human mind may bring to our understanding and treatment of mental illness.

Pictures of the Mind

Author : Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald
Publisher : FT Press
ISBN 13 : 0137054483
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (37 download)

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Book Synopsis Pictures of the Mind by : Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald

Download or read book Pictures of the Mind written by Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald and published by FT Press. This book was released on 2010-01-08 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuroscientists once believed your brain was essentially "locked down" by adulthood. No new cells. No major changes. If you grew up depressed, angry, sad, aggressive, or nasty, you'd be that way for life. And, as you grew older, there'd be nowhere to go but down, as disease, age, or injury wiped out precious, irreplaceable brain cells. But over the past five, ten, twenty years, all that's changed. Using fMRI and PET scanning technology, neuroscientists can now look deep inside the human brain and they've discovered that it's amazingly flexible, resilient, and plastic. Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are shows you what they've discovered and what it means to all of us. Through author Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald’s masterfully written narrative and use stunning imagery, you'll watch human brains healing, growing, and adapting to challenges. You'll gain powerful new insights into the interplay between environment and genetics, begin understanding how people can influence their own intellectual abilities and emotional makeup, and understand the latest stunning discoveries about coma and "locked-in" syndrome. You'll learn about the tantalizing discoveries that may lead to cures for traumatic brain injury, stroke, emotional disorders, PTSD, drug addiction, chronic pain, maybe even Alzheimer's. Boleyn-Fitzgerald shows how these discoveries are transforming our very understanding of the "self", from an essentially static entity to one that can learn and change throughout life and even master the art of happiness.

A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are

Author : Veronica O'Keane
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393541932
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (935 download)

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Book Synopsis A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are by : Veronica O'Keane

Download or read book A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are written by Veronica O'Keane and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-05-25 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do our brains store—and then conjure up—past experiences to make us who we are? A twinge of sadness, a rush of love, a knot of loss, a whiff of regret. Memories have the power to move us, often when we least expect it, a sign of the complex neural process that continues in the background of our everyday lives. This process shapes us: filtering the world around us, informing our behavior and feeding our imagination. Psychiatrist Veronica O’Keane has spent many years observing how memory and experience are interwoven. In this rich, fascinating exploration, she asks, among other things: Why can memories feel so real? How are our sensations and perceptions connected with them? Why is place so important in memory? Are there such things as “true” and “false” memories? And, above all, what happens when the process of memory is disrupted by mental illness? O’Keane uses the broken memories of psychosis to illuminate the integrated human brain, offering a new way of thinking about our own personal experiences. Drawing on poignant accounts that include her own experiences, as well as what we can learn from insights in literature and fairytales and the latest neuroscientific research, O’Keane reframes our understanding of the extraordinary puzzle that is the human brain and how it changes during its growth from birth to adolescence and old age. By elucidating this process, she exposes the way that the formation of memory in the brain is vital to the creation of our sense of self.

The Brain That Changes Itself

Author : Norman Doidge
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101147113
Total Pages : 447 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

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Book Synopsis The Brain That Changes Itself by : Norman Doidge

Download or read book The Brain That Changes Itself written by Norman Doidge and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-03-15 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.”—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge’s inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

A Physicalist Manifesto

Author : Andrew Melnyk
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139442279
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (394 download)

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Book Synopsis A Physicalist Manifesto by : Andrew Melnyk

Download or read book A Physicalist Manifesto written by Andrew Melnyk and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-09 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Physicalist Manifesto is a full treatment of the comprehensive physicalist view that, in some important sense, everything is physical. Andrew Melnyk argues that the view is best formulated by appeal to a carefully worked-out notion of realization, rather than supervenience; that, so formulated, physicalism must be importantly reductionist; that it need not repudiate causal and explanatory claims framed in non-physical language; and that it has the a posteriori epistemic status of a broad-scope scientific hypothesis. Two concluding chapters argue in detail that contemporary science provides no significant empirical evidence against physicalism and some considerable evidence for it. Written in a brisk, candid and exceptionally clear style, this 2003 book should appeal to professionals and students in philosophy of mind, metaphysics and philosophy of science.

Innate

Author : Kevin J. Mitchell
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691204152
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Innate by : Kevin J. Mitchell

Download or read book Innate written by Kevin J. Mitchell and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What makes you the way you are--and what makes each of us different from everyone else? In Innate, leading neuroscientist and popular science blogger Kevin Mitchell traces human diversity and individual differences to their deepest level: in the wiring of our brains. Deftly guiding us through important new research, including his own groundbreaking work, he explains how variations in the way our brains develop before birth strongly influence our psychology and behavior throughout our lives, shaping our personality, intelligence, sexuality, and even the way we perceive the world. We all share a genetic program for making a human brain, and the program for making a brain like yours is specifically encoded in your DNA. But, as Mitchell explains, the way that program plays out is affected by random processes of development that manifest uniquely in each person, even identical twins. The key insight of Innate is that the combination of these developmental and genetic variations creates innate differences in how our brains are wired--differences that impact all aspects of our psychology--and this insight promises to transform the way we see the interplay of nature and nurture. Innate also explores the genetic and neural underpinnings of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, and how our understanding of these conditions is being revolutionized. In addition, the book examines the social and ethical implications of these ideas and of new technologies that may soon offer the means to predict or manipulate human traits. Compelling and original, Innate will change the way you think about why and how we are who we are."--Provided by the publisher.

Am I Just My Brain?

Author : Sharon Dirckx
Publisher : The Good Book Company
ISBN 13 : 1784984035
Total Pages : 146 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (849 download)

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Book Synopsis Am I Just My Brain? by : Sharon Dirckx

Download or read book Am I Just My Brain? written by Sharon Dirckx and published by The Good Book Company. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Looking at the body, mind and soul to answer the question: What exactly is a human being? Modern research is uncovering more and more detail of what our brain is and how it works. We are living, thinking creatures who carry around with us an amazing organic supercomputer in our heads. But what is the relationship between our brains and our minds-and ultimately our sense of identity as a person? Are we more than machines? Is free-will an illusion? Do we have a soul? Brain Imaging Scientist Sharon Dirckx lays out the current understanding of who we are from biologists, philosophers, theologians and psychologists, and points towards a bigger picture that suggests answers to the fundamental questions of our existence. Not just "What am I?", but "Who am I?"-and "Why am I?" Read this book to gain valuable insight into what modern research is telling us about ourselves, or to give a sceptical friend to challenge the idea that we are merely material beings living in a material world.