Will understanding our brains help us to know our minds? Or is there an unbridgeable distance between the work of neuroscience and the workings of human consciousness? In a remarkable exchange between neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux and philosopher Paul Ricoeur, this book explores the vexed territory between these divergent approaches--and comes to a deeper, more complex perspective on human nature.

Ranging across diverse traditions, from phrenology to PET scans and from Spinoza to Charles Taylor, What Makes Us Think? revolves around a central issue: the relation between the facts (or "what is") of science and the prescriptions (or "what ought to be") of ethics. Changeux and Ricoeur ask: Will neuroscientific knowledge influence our moral conduct? Is a naturally based ethics possible? Pursuing these questions, they attack key topics at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience: What are the relations between brain states and psychological experience? Between language and truth? Memory and culture? Behavior and action? What is a mental representation? How does a sign relate to what it signifies? How might subjective experience be constructed rather than discovered? And can biological or cultural evolution be considered progressive? Throughout, Changeux and Ricoeur provide unprecedented insight into what neuroscience can--and cannot--tell us about the nature of human experience.

Changeux and Ricoeur bring an unusual depth of engagement and breadth of knowledge to each other's subject. In doing so, they make two often hostile disciplines speak to one another in surprising and instructive ways--and speak with all the subtlety and passion of conversation at its very best.

The French literati love bringing two leading figures from what would appear to be disparate fields together and jointly publishing essays on a chosen topic. This generally provides some fascinating point/counterpoint, and this work falls into the camp of exemplary discussions that result from this process. . . . These two amazing minds at work make for a fascinating look at the who, what, and how thought happens.

Intoxicatingly dense and provocative.

Two leading giants face off: the biologist Jean-Pierre Changeux, leading neuroscientist and author of Neuronal Man, and the philosopher Paul Ricoeur, eminent apostle of phenomenology and author of Living Metaphors. The two . . . Develop . . . a true exchange of ideas, breaking with the preemptory affirmations and unilateral critiques which have too often characterized relations between science and philosophy.

A rich dialogue, insofar as the two men belong to divergent currents of thought . . . neither a sham exchange of blows nor an intellectual compromise on either side. . . . This exchange constitutes the most successful exercise of its type . . . it throws the perspectives right open.

Surprise! This dialogue between neuroscientist Changeaux and philosopher Ricoeur really is comprehensible. It works because both authors are well-rounded scholars committed to the clarity of expression . . . . General readers and professionals who are interested in science and philosophy, including brain surgeons, will enjoy it.

Despite their disparities, [Changeux and Ricour] manage to converse intensely and well. The dialogue benefits from each partner's ability to listen carefully and respond clearly, and also from the long perspective, based in intellectual history, each takes. . . . Challenging and enlightening.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [313]-326) and index.

Jean-Pierre Changeux, Professor of Neurobiology at the College de France, is the author of Neuronal Man and, with Alain Connes, Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics (both Princeton). Paul Ricoeur is a hermeneutic philosopher and the author of many books, including Time and Narrative.

Translator's Note vi

Prelude ix

Chapter 1: A Necessary Encounter

Knowledge and Wisdom 3

Knowledge of the Brain and Self-Knowledge 10

The Biological and the Normative 26

Chapter 2: Body and Mind: In Search of a Common Discourse 33

The Cartesian Ambiguity 33

The Contribution of the Neurosciences 41

Toward a Third Kind of Discourse? 63

Chapter 3: The Neuronal Model and the Test of Experience 70

The Simple and the Complex: Questions of Method 70

The Human Brain: Complexity, Hierarchy, Spontaneity 75

Mental Objects: Chimera or Link? 93

Is a Neuronal Theory of Knowledge Possible? 110

Understanding Better by Explaining More 125

Chapter 4: Consciousness of Oneself and of Others 134

Conscious Space 134

The Question of Memory 138

Comprehension of Oneself and of Others 154

Mind or Matter? 169

Chapter 5: The Origins of Morality 179

Darwinian Evolution and Moral Norms 179

The First Structures of Morality 195

From Biological History to Cultural History: Valuing the Individual 202

Chapter 6: Desire and Norms 212

Natural Dispositions to Ethical Systems 212

The Biological Bases of Rules of Conduct 222

Passage to the Norm 239

Chapter 7: Ethical Universality and Cultural Conflict 257

The Natural Foundations of an Ethics of Debate 257

Religion and Violence 259

Paths of Tolerance 272

The Scandal of Evil 279

Toward an Ethics of Deliberation: The Example of Advisory Committees on Bioethics 298

Art as Peacemaker 303

Fugue 311

Notes 313

Index 327