Volume 34, Number 6 · April 9, 1987
Am I My Brain?
By Jonathan Glover
The View from Nowhere
by Thomas Nagel
Oxford University Press, 244 pp., $19.95
The thought often strikes people when they are in their teens: it is most unlikely that the truth about the universe, or about the right way to live, is just what I happen to believe. It would be unbelievable good luck if the god my church taught me about actually existed, or if the ideas I have absorbed about democracy, feminism, or racism could not be improved on. Part of growing up is to see that, even if our beliefs are partly true, they do not correspond in a simple way to the world. Although I may aspire to make my beliefs as objective as possible, they are subject to the distortions of my particular perspective—my desires, interests, values.
Review, 4562 words
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