Publisher's Comments (cont.) Why is life worth living? What
makes actions right or wrong? What is reality and how do we know
it? The Brain and the Meaning of Life draws on research in
philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to answer some of the
most pressing questions about life's nature and value. Paul
Thagard argues that evidence requires the abandonment of many
traditional ideas about the soul, free will, and immortality,
and shows how brain science matters for fundamental issues about
reality, morality, and the meaning of life. The ongoing Brain
Revolution reveals how love, work, and play provide good reasons
for living. Defending the superiority of evidence-based
reasoning over religious faith and philosophical thought
experiments, Thagard argues that minds are brains and that
reality is what science can discover. Brains come to know
reality through a combination of perception and reasoning. Just
as important, our brains evaluate aspects of reality through
emotions that can produce both good and bad de