Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T14:17:17.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

How real are you?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2009

Get access

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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