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Few concepts are more unshakable in our culture than "free will," the idea that individuals are fundamentally in control of the decisions they make, good or bad. And yet the latest research about how the brain functions seems to point in the opposite direction, with fresh discoveries indicating the many ways in which humans are subject to influences well beyond the control of the conscious self. In The Self Beyond Itself, acclaimed scholar Heidi M. Ravven offers a wide-ranging and bold argument for a new vision of ethics, one that takes into account neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology, challenging the ways in which we view our actions—and, indeed, our selves.
In a work of breathtaking intellectual sweep and erudition, Ravven offers a riveting and accessible review of cutting-edge neuroscientific research into the brain’s capacity for decision-making—from "mirror" neurons and "self-mapping" to surprising new understandings of group psychology. The Self Beyond Itself also introduces readers to a rich, alternative philosophical tradition of ethics, rooted in the writing of Baruch Spinoza, that finds uncanny confirmation in modern science.
Illustrating the results of today’s research with real-life examples, taking readers from elementary school classrooms to Nazi concentration camps, Ravven demonstrates that it is possible to build a theory of ethics that doesn’t rely on free will yet still holds both individuals and groups responsible for the decisions that help create a good society. The Self Beyond Itself is that rare book that injects new ideas into an old debate—and helps us consider anew our understanding of ourselves and of our world.
- Sales Rank: #797324 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-05-28
- Released on: 2013-05-28
- Format: Kindle eBook
Review
“As she delves deeply into the cognitive, cultural and philosophical sources of moral agency, Ravven takes careful note of the emerging brain sciences. . . .[A] must-read for anyone interested in the breadth and depth of our moral mentality.”
—Jaak Panksepp, Baily Endowed Professor in Animal Well-Being Sciences, Washington State University, and author of The Archaeology of Mind
“An intellectual hand-grenade, The Self Beyond Itself is a magisterial survey of how contemporary neuroscience supports a vision of human morality which puts it squarely on the same plane as other natural phenomena. . . . This book will spark fruitful debate and reminds us of the debt we owe Aristotle and Spinoza as we make sense of ourselves as part of the natural world.”
—William D. Casebeer, author of Natural Ethical Facts
“The most brilliant, original book on ethics in decades. Ravven’s immense erudition and sharp critical insights are extraordinary. This is a fascinating book for everyone concerned about education, politics, history, philosophy, religion, and the survival of human society.”
—Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
“Shatters the many bubbles that contemporary philosophers have built around themselves. Its criticisms of free will are historically grounded and logically cogent; its alternative views of freedom and moral agency, drawing largely on Spinoza, are persuasive and much needed. This book will generate wide discussion in academic fields—and break new paths for society as a whole.”
—John McCumber, professor of Germanic languages, UCLA
“I began reading this book, because I had agreed to; I stayed because it riveted me. Not only is this a brilliant examination of ethical behavior in the light of history, social psychology, brain science, and philosophy, it is a powerful demonstration of what those disciplines are for. A new basis for the instilling of ethical behavior cannot be gainsaid after reading The Self Beyond Itself.”
—Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, University of California, Berkeley
“Fascinating, accessible, and engaging. . . . Ravven provides an alternative vision of human ethics, initially expressed in the naturalistic philosophy of Spinoza but also well supported by contemporary research in the cognitive sciences.”
—Wendell Wallach, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
“Extraordinarily wide-ranging, fervently argued, and visionary. . . . Ravven’s book is an exemplary case of a public philosophy, or the use of different modes of reasoning to broaden political sensibilities and battle provincialism.”
—Jim Wetzel, Augustinian Chair, Villanova University
“A thought-provoking study about the most urgent moral questions.”
—Warren Zev Harvey, professor emeritus, Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“A perfect book for thoughtful people who wish they had taken (or wish they had paid attention in) a philosophy class in college. The real-life examples render the ideas very accessible and illustrate how our concepts of ‘self’ influence everything we do. Make it the gift you give your ‘self.’”
—P.H. Longstaff, professor, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University
About the Author
Heidi M. Ravven is a professor of religious studies at Hamilton College. A founding member of the Society for Empirical Ethics, she has published widely in interdisciplinary journals and is the co-editor of Jewish Themes in Spinoza’s Philosophy. She lives in Cazenovia, New York.
Most helpful customer reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
A great adventure in thought
By E. J. Evans
This book ambitiously and directly confronts and attempts to untangle the basic problem of ethical knowledge, i.e. that after millennia of philosophical inquiry and debate, the field of ethics as a subject of philosophical study seems to be more confused than ever. To accomplish her goal of finally bringing some clarity and sense to the subject of ethics, Ravven greatly expands the scope of ethical inquiry to delve into the history of moral education (and its failures) in the American educational tradition, the philosophically problematic concept of "free will" especially as promulgated by Augustine, the competing philosophical traditions exemplified by Maimonides and Spinoza that may present a more realistic and humane view of human moral agency, what modern neuropsychology now knows about how the brain works (and especially how the brain's functioning is constantly being reworked and readjusted as a result of the experiences one has) and the implications of this knowledge for moral agency, and the sociology of group behavior and its crucial implications for the question what exactly the "self" is and how far it extends out into the world. A key theme of the book is that the study of ethics has been handicapped by its traditional (at least in the Latin Christian tradition) association with the philosophical doctrine of "free will." Ravven examines the history of the philosophy of free will in great detail. What emerges is the realization that the doctrine of free will is in fact logically equivalent to the idea that the "self" is a transcendent entity, separate from the body and outside of nature (as in Descartes), and we also see that this is fundamentally a theological position, not a philosophical one! The fact that Western cultures have been dominated by this awkward theological chimera for centuries goes a long way toward explaining why we have had such a difficult time trying to understand the basic principles of why people behave ethically and why they don't. From the studies of group dynamics (including the overwhelming power of conformism) and of the neuroplasticity of the brain/mind, we see that the traditional philosophical notion of the self as a distinct entity is quite unrealistic. What we do know now from modern psychological and sociological research is that what we like to think of as one's "self" (or in general "human nature") is in fact endlessly malleable, a dynamic & fluid thing, a part of nature, always in flux. We now see the self as being distributed, with no fixed limits but subject to the laws of nature, a dynamic process of varying extents, and being inevitably and constantly reshaped, sometimes in the most subtle ways, by everything it experiences. Ravven ends on a hopeful note with an eloquent appeal for a sweeping reappraisal of our traditional approaches to education (and more broadly, our culture in general), that would start with a recognition of the real nature of the human mind as permeable, malleable and as a part of the natural world. We can imagine an approach to education and character development which would emphasize the development of the whole person as an ongoing process of discovery, i.e. the discovery of the ways in which harmony comes about between one's self and the world.
Ravven writes with great clarity and eloquence. Her arguments are very thoroughly thought out and thoroughly explained. The best audience for the book would be intelligent laymen who have an active interest in the topics presented in the book, who read carefully, and who take the time to think about what they read. It is not a passive reading experience. But for an intelligent person who seriously wants to shed a great deal of light on the confusing notion of what "human nature" is, I recommend this book highly.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Depth Meets Breadth
By Duncan
The Self Beyond Itself is an utterly remarkable book. It is destined to become a classic in the field. The question, however, is which field? Professor Ravven scours the domains of social psychology, neuroscience, ethics, religion and even the lessons from the cultural mass genocides of the last century to teach us not only about who we are individually but who we become in the context of the groups in which we find ourselves. She explains to us why it is that people behave so very differently in different contexts and how they can be so oblivious to the pain that they inflict on others in certain situations while exquisitely sensitive in others. Most importantly of all, perhaps, are the far reaching ramifications of what she has to say, from the workplace to the playground. This is simply a must-read for anyone in search of answers to the really deep important questions about what it means to be human.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
A Very Important Book
By Tom McNamara
It has become de regeur for universities to proclaim the importance of cross discipline scholarship, but in my experience academic departments are still often resistant to practice what they preach. Prof. Raveen's book is an outstanding exception to this contradiction. Her scholarship combines philosophy with neuroscience with a scope and depth that is rarely achieved by a single author. Ravven begins by tracing the path of Aristotelian ethics through the Middle Ages, when it had been lost to the West but was valued by Arab and Hebrew scholars in the Middle East. She then shows how it was reintroduced into the Western philosophical tradition by Baruch Spinoza, whose thought contributed so much to the emergence of the Enlightenment era. Her point is to show the reader that our contemporary understanding of moral freedom and responsibility, which became entrenched in our western culture due to the influence of Descartes and Kant, is not neither self-evident nor unassailable.
Ravven then reviews many of the major contributions that neuroscience has recently made to our understanding of how the human mind works and she concludes, quite rightly, I believe, that this new evidence strongly favors the Aristotelian/Spinozist model of human freedom over what we usually refer to as Cartesian dualism. The professor strongly implies that our current understanding of the causes of our own behavior is much more influenced by Medieval theology than by the scientific facts. There is a growing movement within the community of social scientists to question our notion of free will, but as far as know Ravven is one of the first ethicists to reach a similar conclusion based on her own philosophical scholarship.
This book is destined to become a classic and that everyone who wants to understand what both philosophy and science have to teach us about our own mind should become familiar with.
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