The Ego Tunnel

The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

Contributors

By Thomas Metzinger

Formats and Prices

Price

$12.99

Price

$16.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $12.99 $16.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $17.99 $22.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around March 17, 2009. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Examine the inner workings of the mind and learn what consciousness and a sense of self really means – and if it even exists.

We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain-an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.”But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution, The Ego Tunnel provides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.
Request Desk/Exam Copy

Genre:

On Sale
Mar 17, 2009
Page Count
288 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780786744428

Thomas Metzinger

About the Author

Thomas Metzinger directs the Theoretical Philosophy Group at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Study. He is the former president of the German Cognitive Science Society and one of the founders of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. He has written and edited several books, among them Being No One; Conscious Experience; and Neural Correlates of Consciousness. He lives in Germany.

Learn more about this author