I am Not a Brain

Markus Gabriel is still in his late 30s, and has since 2009 held the chair of epistemology in the University of Bonn. An indication of the author's position is his phrase describing the human being as a minded animal with a plurality of self conceptions. The book is a systematic challenge to neurocentrism, the idea that the self is identical with the brain. He is critical of any system that posits the existence of reality as a whole and questions naturalistic metaphysics and the notion of the causal closure of the natural world. In doing so he defends a philosophy of mind and the scepticism of Raymond Tallis about neuromania and Darwinitis. His approach is neo-existentialist asserting that the human mind makes an image of itself and thereby engenders a multiplicity of mental realities that cannot simply be reduced to biological processes.

The book draws on on a wide range of sources to discuss what is at stake in the philosophy of mind, consciousness, self-consciousness, the nature of the self and freedom. Like Gilbert Ryle, he is dismissive of any dualistic idea of the soul, also praising Kant's Dreams of a Spirit Seer without even mentioning that it is a critique of Swedenborg and characterising his experience as a form of superstitious belief. This indicates the limit of his treatment, since, like most professional philosophers, he makes no mention of evidence for an independent spiritual reality. Having said this, his critiques of more limited materialistic positions and various forms of determinism are well worth reading, as is his defence of freedom and his important distinction between causes and reasons with ends in mind. In doing this, he advocates spiritual freedom against reductionist and eliminativist views 'that would like to persuade us that we have neither minds in any demanding sense nor freedom.' He sees the current neurocentric ideology as a modern attempt by the human being to get rid of itself.