- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press (15 July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 074861737X
- ISBN-13: 978-0748617371
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,815,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
It's hard to imagine any other book that could tell us so much about ourselves. Raymond Tallis is a man unusual in modern medicine. His career has been devoted to caring for, studying, and advancing the health of older people in society. But while working as a Professor of Geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, he has developed a parallel career - as a philosopher, critic, poet and novelist - largely unknown to his clinical brotherhood and sisterhood. Indeed, important though his medical work has been, it is likely that his philosophy, and especially his philosophical anthropology will leave a particularly indelible mark on human affairs. -- Richard Horton Compellingly interesting ! An extraordinary achievement. -- Michael Grant, editor of The Raymond Tallis Reader One of the most intriguing figures in the current intellectual scene. Tallis conjures up a challenging and endlessly fascinating way of thinking about ourselves that should act as a signpost for the future where we might learn once again to glimpse, as our forebears did, the wonder - and mystery - of ourselves. It's hard to imagine any other book that could tell us so much about ourselves. Raymond Tallis is a man unusual in modern medicine. His career has been devoted to caring for, studying, and advancing the health of older people in society. But while working as a Professor of Geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester, he has developed a parallel career - as a philosopher, critic, poet and novelist - largely unknown to his clinical brotherhood and sisterhood. Indeed, important though his medical work has been, it is likely that his philosophy, and especially his philosophical anthropology will leave a particularly indelible mark on human affairs. Compellingly interesting ! An extraordinary achievement. One of the most intriguing figures in the current intellectual scene. Tallis conjures up a challenging and endlessly fascinating way of thinking about ourselves that should act as a signpost for the future where we might learn once again to glimpse, as our forebears did, the wonder - and mystery - of ourselves.
The Times Higher Education Supplement
'One of the most intriguing figures in the current intellectual scene.'
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Raymond Tallis' `The Hand: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Human Being' is a genius work of philosophical anthropology. The first of a trilogy I definitely want to complete; it outlines Tallis' thesis that human agency and human selfhood (both distinct from anything experienced by any other animal) developed because of the evolutionarily formed human hand. This is not, Tallis' stresses, just another case of reductionist Biologism, Evolutionary Psychology or Sociobiology popularised most recently by Richard Dawkins and his extension of the Gene-centered view of evolution to a Meme-centered view of sociology. Rather, Tallis attempts to show how humans came to be distinct from all other animals not just be degree but by kind; that humans, as handkind, are utterly unique.
In doing this Tallis offers powerful critiques against those who try and dismiss the significance of Human Being; from Hegelian Marxians to Sociobiologists and from the Romantics to the Postmodernists. He vehemently attacks what he describes as `Arcadian fantasies of a pre-technological past.' (p.333) and argues that the relative merit of technological development that stems from the hand has yet to be determined, but that anti-technological theories offer no valid alternative beyond romanticised myths. Most crucially Tallis hypothesises an optimistic future for Handkind; a refreshing vision of possible hope amidst an intellectual climate of despair and misanthropy.
This book is an excellent celebration of the hand and Handkind.
In doing this Tallis offers powerful critiques against those who try and dismiss the significance of Human Being; from Hegelian Marxians to Sociobiologists and from the Romantics to the Postmodernists. He vehemently attacks what he describes as `Arcadian fantasies of a pre-technological past.' (p.333) and argues that the relative merit of technological development that stems from the hand has yet to be determined, but that anti-technological theories offer no valid alternative beyond romanticised myths. Most crucially Tallis hypothesises an optimistic future for Handkind; a refreshing vision of possible hope amidst an intellectual climate of despair and misanthropy.
This book is an excellent celebration of the hand and Handkind.
6 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is some very interesting, useful and thought provoking information in this book. However, you have to read an awful lot of pretentious verbiage to get to it. It is quite typical of some philosophical books, however the subject matter saves it from being useless.
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