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How real are you?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2009

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Abstract

Has science shown that people are, in some sense, an illusion? According to Mary Midgley, that is precisely what some scientists now preach. Focusing particularly on a claim made by Richard Dawkins, she explains why she believes these scientists are making a serious mistake.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2002

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References

Notes

1 Dawkins, Richard, Unweaving the Rainbow (London: Penguin, 1998), pp. 308–9.Google Scholar

2 Dawkins, Richard, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976), pp. 206207.Google Scholar

3 In ‘Being Scientific About Ourselves‘, Journal of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, April, 1999Google Scholar, and in Science and Poetry (London: Routledge 2000), chapter 6.Google Scholar

4 See The Meme Machine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar

5 Goodwin, B., How The Leopard Changed Its Spots (London: Orion Books, 1994), pp. ix–x.Google Scholar