Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self (The Terry Lectures Series) |  | Author: Marilynne Robinson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Rating:  13 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 176
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0300145187
Dewey Decimal Number: 201.65
EAN: 9780300145182
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Product Description
In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thoughtâscience, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, Absence of Mind challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinsonâs view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.
By defending the importance of individual reflection, Robinson celebrates the power and variety of human consciousness in the tradition of William James. She explores the nature of subjectivity and considers the culture in which Sigmund Freud was situated and its influence on his model of self and civilization. Through keen interpretations of language, emotion, science, and poetry, Absence of Mind restores human consciousness to its central place in the religion-science debate. (20100529)
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
 Take That, Reverend Paley May 11, 2010
Ben B. Barnes (Tennessee Valley, USA)
57 out of 77 found this review helpful
This little volume by an accomplished novelist ("Gilead," "Housekeeping," "Home") is her erudite and intriguing venture into philosophy and metaphysics, taking the Good Housekeeping broom to the likes of Freud and Nietzsche while seeming to be cautiously protective of spirituality in general, Descartes and Jung in particular.
The work, published by Yale Press, consists of four loosely coupled essays, any one of which can stand alone, titled "On Human Nature," "The Strange History of Altruism," "The Freudian Self," and "Thinking Again."
In attempting to find a pithy phrase to convey the thrust of Robinson's work, I am of necessity reduced to oversimplification. Suffice it to say she agrees with the position which I believe has been stated repeatedly and effectively by Professor Seale, that science is only a tool which we use to chip away at the shadows, never an end or a solution in itself.
One of Robinson's paragraphs may replace Mark Twain's account of Tom whitewashing the fence as my favorite ever. From "Thinking Again:"
". . . What is man? One answer on offer is, An organism whose haunting questions perhaps ought not to be meaningful to the organ that generates them, lacking as it is in any means of "solving" them. Another answer might be, It is still too soon to tell. We might be the creature who brings life on this planet to an end, and we might be the creature who awakens to the privileges that inhere in our nature - selfhood, consciousness, even our biologically anomalous craving for "the truth" - and enjoys and enhances them. Mysteriously, neither possibility precludes the other. . . ."
In Defense of Consciousness June 27, 2010
David Cook (Atlanta, Georgia)
41 out of 55 found this review helpful
It could be argued that like the American constitution, Culture relies for it's checks and balances on three branches: science, the humanities, and religion. Unbalanced, religion falters into inquisitions and holy wars; science, into eugenics and bell curves; the humanities, into übermenchen and madmen. As Aristotle's virtues rested in moderation, as Buddhism clings to the middle way, so must Culture find and maintain its equilibrium. At present, however, this equilibrium is disturbed. While hard science transforms matter into miracles, soft science maligns philosophy and religion, transforming the miracle of mind into matter if not dust, banishing the supernatural while highlighting the unnatural--the twentieth century having witnessed the ultimate flourishing of unnatural death to date.
ABSENCE OF MIND: the Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self by Pulitzer prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson provides a thoughtful case helping to restore cultural balance. She coins parascience to describe the theories of "self-declared rationalists" spreading the gospel of "objectivity" to reduce people into objects. The reasoning of her polemic is acute as she vivisects arguments to sweep aside the cultural wonders of consciousness and the human mind. She ridicules "the assumption that humankind is itself fearful, irrational, deluded and self-deceived, excepting, of course these missionaries of enlightenment [the parascientists themselves]." Always brilliant, Robinson is at times ironic, at times laugh-aloud funny. Her wit, intelligence and incisiveness seriously contest the notion that those disguising themselves in the wool of science have any monopoly on reason, logic or truth. At its best, her prose captures the consciousness of self and what it means to be human.
ABSENCE OF MIND is four chapter defense of the human mind: "On Human Nature," exposes and criticizes modernity's theme that the mind, beguiled by evolutionary forces and a paucity of perception, cannot be trusted. " The Strange History of Altruism," questions the tendency to rationalize and spirit away human compassion on the wings of insect models. "The Freudian Self", places Freud's sexually- beleaguered unconscious mind (again, a mind discrediting human thought) in the social context of the hysteria and denial engendered by antisemitic, pre-holocaust Europe. Finally "Thinking Again" argues for the primacy of the "history of human thought" and its "ancient instinct" to ask the "greatest questions," a glory that cannot be reduced or constrained by the inadequate, parochial theories of parascience, a term that deserves to find its way into the common vocabulary of our culture, separating the dregs of ideology from the fine wine of science.
To force the mind to do its own thinking July 23, 2010
Gordon Hill (Las Cruces, NM)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
It was Whitehead, as I recall, who said, "The sole purpose of reading is to force the mind to do its own thinking." Absence of Mind can do that. Whether you agree with the premises, observations and conclusions may be less important than that this book can, if you read it, without prejudice, intent on considering her journey through human nature and the exploration of what it is to be fully human.
My five is the result of a three (for content) plus a two for her causation of me to consider possibilities I would not have explored in idle moments.
The only thing missing, for me, is a recommended reacing list to augment her revelations of the "read with caution" examples.
A scratch on the surface of proper perspective August 10, 2010
CD
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book does what every good book of its kind should do. It raises issues while putting others in perspective. Ms. Robinson highlights the conundrum of trusting objectivity and tackles the issue of broad reaching conclusions based on early and narrow evidence. In my view, a triumph for thoughtful empiricism. Kudos.
An Incomparable Mind August 18, 2010
reality bites (portland, me usa)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Get over it, Belly-Achers. Robinson's prose isn't for the "chew it up, spit it out" reader. And to state or imply that she writes anything with an eye on the almighty dollar defies a response. Read and learn.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 13
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