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SPLIT BRAIN, SPLIT VIEWS – DEBATING IAIN MCGILCHRIST

February 24, 2013 by Kenan Malik

Iain McGilchrist has written a response to my post about his book The Master and his Emissary and about the RSA workshop that discussed it. Since it is a long reply, Iain asked me whether I could publish it as a post, rather than as a comment, which I am happy to do. I have appended my own response at the end. (And just to avoid any confusion, while I have set up the discussion in the form of two open […]

Categories: Human, Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: debates, human agency, iain mcgilchrist, neuroscience, ray tallis, reason

DIVIDED BRAIN, DIVIDED WORLD?

February 21, 2013 by Kenan Malik

In November the RSA in London held a workshop to discuss Iain McGilchrist’s book The Master and his Emissary. The RSA has now published Divided Brain Divided World, a report of that workshop, together with a long conversation between McGilchrist and Jonathan Rowson, Director of the RSA’s Social Brain Centre. McGilchrist’s book deals with the social, political and philosophical implications of the lateralisation of the brain, that is, its division into two hemispheres, left and right. The difference between the two […]

Categories: Human, Science & Technology • Tags: human agency, iain mcgilchrist, neuroscience, ray tallis, reason

IN PRAISE OF RAY TALLIS

September 21, 2011 by Kenan Malik

A reporter from the US Chronicle of Higher Education contacted me to see if I was willing to be interviewed about Ray Tallis. Apparently the Chronicle is running a big spread about Tallis to mark the American launch of his new book Aping Mankind. I was more than happy to offer my views. I have long thought of Tallis as one of the hidden treasures of British culture, to set alongside the likes of the Horniman Museum, Little Atoms and […]

Categories: Philosophy & Ethics, Science & Technology • Tags: human agency, human nature, humanism, john gray, neuroscience, public intellectuals, ray tallis