Mind-Body Problems: Science, Subjectivity & Who We Really Are: Horgan, John: 9781731440488: Amazon.com: Books (original) (raw)

I first became acquainted with Horgan’s writing when reading the epilogue to his book (After War), which offered a Corlis Lamont-like defense of free will from the perspective of “intuitionism” sans inference or rigorous argumentation.

It was based on this sample of his writing that I decided to purchase Mind Body Problems…a self-published book, a book that I believe is free (open access) on Horgan’s webpage. If I had known that prior to purchasing the book, and began reading it as a free PDF, I most likely would not have finished it…

The book claims to pursue the thorny and persistent issue of the mind-body problem, which the author quite rightly explains, has (1) yet to be satisfactorily solved (resolved) and (2) should really be re-conceived in terms of “problems” – and not reduced to "problem", e.g., in terms of issues of consciousness, free will, moral responsibility, religion, etc.

Horgan is a talented and well-informed writer and researcher; he writes for Scientific American, and his connections allow him to hob-knob with and so secure interviews with internationally renowned scientists and academics such as Koch, Gopnik, Flanagan, Trivers, and more. The author’s interaction with these scientific and philosophical giants is, to a greater and lesser degree, well worth reading.

The book unfolds through biography, autobiography, and what qualitative researchers classify as “ethnography” – it’s a paradigmatic example of the conceptual research lens of “narratology,” and it deals with the mind-body issue related to diverse areas of study such as child psychology, evolutionary biology, law, economics, and philosophy.

However, to my disappointment, the book is more focused on the way major academics and intellectuals research and live – instantiate – the mind-body problem than it is focused on presenting and analyzing their solutions to the problem in detail. In addition, it offers something of a veiled psychoanalysis of the professors that Horgan interviews. It’s most definitely interesting and insightful but it left me somewhat unsatisfied, this reaction based on the title and the book’s description. For example, the sections of the book devoted to elucidating the many proposed solutions to the mind-body dichotomy are thin and superficial, for as stated, the real focus is on the emotional struggles that the academics Horgan interviews endure in their private and professional lives!

The last chapter is an extended reflection on the introduction, and it is an unnecessary addition to the book, this because the author explains clearly in the introduction why the book necessitated self-publishing. Although I do not often agree with editors, in this case, I side with Horgan on the issue of publication with a major commercial press – the book, as it stands, and the author admits this, is simply too difficult to market – it resists rigid classification (but this, it seems, is precisely what the author wanted).

James M. Magrini

Former: Philosophy & Ethics/College of Dupage