The Human Psyche: The Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, 1978-9

An in-depth exploration of dualist-interactionism, a concept Sir John Eccles developed with Sir Karl Popper in "The Self and its Brain", in the context of a wide variety of brain activities relating to self-consciousness. Opening with a critical discussion of material hypotheses on the relationship of mind and brain, it aims to demonstrate the explanatory power of dualist-interactionism in contrast to the poverty and inadequacy of materialist theories of the mind. The "mind" is accepted as an entity of divine origin which interacts with and controls the material brain. Sir John shows that dualist-interactionism offers valuable insights into the higher levels of human experience that cannot be accommodated to materialist theories of the mind - for example: the whole range of values; freedom of the will and moral responsibility; the uniqueness of the human person; the quest of meaning and for hope in the context of the inevitable end in death of this, our life on earth. This book is intended for undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in the fields of neurological science, anthropology, philosophy of the mind and philosophy of religion.