The Thwarting of Laplace's Demon: Arguments Against the Mechanistic World-view

Are human activities nothing but an outcome of mechanistic brain processes? The answer to this question is crucial to our general conception of the world. For if our actions are not determined in a mechanistic way we should have to radically revise the prevailing world picture associated with modern science. That just such a radical revision is needed is the central theme of this book. The many arguments given in support draw on analyses firstly of human language, intelligence, learning and consciousness, and secondly of the key attributes of life. The aim is to bring out the manifold (though related) failings of the mechanistic world picture. Yet the gain in understanding thereby sought is not purely philosophical in Wittgenstein's sense: it does not leave everything as it is. On the contrary, the implications not only for traditional philosophical issues - such as the mind/body problem - but for neuropsychology, biology and biophysics.