Issue: Human Society

In Seeing Ourselves, humanist philosopher and neuroscientist Raymond Tallis goes in search of what kind of beings we are, and where we might find meaning in our lives. If we reject religion, asks Tallis, what should we put in its place? How do we ensure, if we accept the death of God, that something within us does not also die? And where do we find meaning if, as some scientists claim, we are simply organisms shaped by the forces of evolution, with no reason to exist and with no objective value? Tallis begins his quest by establishing what it is we know of our fundamental nature. He examines our relationship to our own bodies, to time, our selfhood and our agency – all manifestations of the unique nature of human consciousness – and shows why human beings are like nothing else in the universe.