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ROCKWELL, W. Teed. Neither Brain nor Ghost: A Nondualist Alternative to the Mind-Brain Identity Theory. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. xxii + 231 pp. Cloth, $36.00-The thesis of this book is that current problems in the philosophy of mind are !insolvable because philosophers are committed to a position Rockwell calls "Cartesian Materialism." A Cartesian of the old-fashioned dualist sort thinks that the human body is a machine and that the human soul, which is the real locus of human consciousness, is in some way inside ofthat body. Few today, however, are dualists, for nearly everyone assumes that materialism is true. Nevertheless contemporary philosophers are still Cartesians, for they think that the brain has now replaced the soul: consciousness is supposed to be found solely in the brain or in brain activity. The brain is a material organ but it is still inside the body. Contemporary philosophers of mind are thus Cartesian Materialists. Instead, Rockwell argues, philosophers should realize that the human conscious self is not reducible to the brain, nor to the nervous system, nor even to the human body. The thinking, conscious self is a nexus-or a "behavioral field"-of the brain, the nervous system, the body, and the world.
This thesis, if it cannot be strictly proven to be true, can nevertheless be supported on pragmatic grounds-which is convenient for Rockwell, who claims to be a...