Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness

Noë turns Descartes's famous statement on its head: I am, therefore I think, says Noë. The author, a philosopher at UC-Berkeley, challenges the assumptions underlying neuroscientific studies of consciousness, rejecting popular mechanistic theories that our experience of the world stems from the firing of the neurons in our brains. Noë (Action in Perception ) argues that we are not our brains, that consciousness arises from interactions with our surroundings: “Consciousness is not something that happens inside us. It is something we do or make.” Noë points out that many of our habits, like language, are “foundational” aspects of our mental experience, but at the same time many, if not most, habits are environmental in nature—we behave a particular way in a particular situation. He goes on to challenge popular theories of perception, in particular the claim that the world is just a grand illusion conjured up by the brain. Readers interested in how science can intersect with and profit from philosophy will find much food for thought in Noë's groundbreaking study. (Feb. 24)