De La Mettrie's Ghost

September 15, 2005
Nunn really refers to two ghosts in his book's title: that of the concept aptly named by Julien de la Mettrie's 1747 book " L'homme machine," or "man a machine," and the ghost or soul within the "machine" that post-Cartesian philosophers said a human being was. The ghost of the machine Nunn dispels, and the ghost in the machine he releases, by first educing two axioms of free will from neuropsychological research findings about the workings of the brain, and then neuropsychologically explaining the existence of consciousness from the functioning of memory. Proceeding to theories of choice and finding that all involve memory, Nunn outlines the unconscious processes that underlie consciousness and then employs an imaginary but typical case study and the histories of several historical "cognitive objects" or cultural phenomena, such as weariness in the Victorian era, to show how internal and external memories organized as "stories" converge to affect freely willed personal choices. " Meaty" is one word for this dense little book. " Rich" and " savory" are others. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)