Mary Furness

Nicholas Fearn has arrayed before us in his latest book a procession of Western philosophers, dead and alive, hailing from the dawn of rational thought in the ancient world to the present day. In the manner of a polite and cultivated ringmaster he impartially introduces, compares and sums up, giving all his characters a say, and occasionally gently interjecting his own opinions. Under the broad headings ‘Who Am I?’, and ‘What Do I Know?’ and ‘What Should I Do?’ the individual chapters include discussions of free will and fate, minds and machines, bodies and souls, knowledge, meaning, understanding, post-modernism and pragmatism and the latest ethical dilemmas.

What does it mean to be human? The many possible answers to this question and their rejection form the cornucopian content of this book. Is language, for example, a defining characteristic of being human? It can’t be because other species have forms of communication which qualify as a sort of language; dolphins whistle, bees dance, ants squeak, apes can learn human sign language and there are many well-attested cases of parrots understanding what they are saying. Are humans part of the animal continuum and if, as seems probable, they are, then what is it that singles humans out as unique? Is there a particular non-animal quality that only humans have? Could it be, for example, purposiveness or imagination?