What Is It Like To Be A

Altruism Itself Depends On A Recognition Of The Reality Of Other Persons, And On The Equivalent Capacity To Regard Oneself As Merely One Individual Among Many.

Equally Real At All Stages Of His Life; Specifically, The Fact That A Particular Stage Is Present Cannot Be Regarded As Conferring On It Any Special Status.

If A Psychological Maxwell Devises A General Theory Of Mind, He May Make It Possible For A Psychological Einstein To Follow With A Theory That The Mental And The Physical Are Really The Same. But This Could Happen Only At The End Of A Process Which Began With The Recognition That The Mental Is Something Completely Different From The Physical World As We Have Come To Know It Through A Certain Highly Successful Form Of Detached Objective Understanding. Only If The Uniqueness Of The Mental Is Recognized Will Concepts And Theories Be Devised Especially For The Purpose Of Understanding It.

If We Tried To Rely Entirely On Reason, And Pressed It Hard, Our Lives And Beliefs Would Collapse - A Form Of Madness That May Actually Occur If The Inertial Force Of Taking The World And Life For Granted Is Somehow Lost. If We Lose Our Grip On That, Reason Will Not Give It Back To Us.

The More Details We Learn About The Chemical Basis Of Life And The Intricacy Of The Genetic Code, The More Unbelievable The Standard Historical Account Becomes