9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whatever it is, that guitarist put a spell on he, July 16, 2006
There is much positive to recommend about this excellent little book on the mind-body problem, in which the author defends as much materialism as possible while still retaining a place for the "explanatory gap" he first proposed in 1983. Through it all Levine is exceedingly thorough, open-minded and polite to a fault. He doesn't discount any position without offering an argument (an exception...no argument for the causal closure of the physical, though you can't fault one too much for not questioning this most firmly entrenched dogma of modernity), gives even positions he will ultimately discard their due air-time, and, perhaps most tellingly, characterizes the arguments of others fairly and with extraordinary thoughtfulness. To cite one instance of putting arguments ahead of intuitions, in his treatment of the "conceivability argument", Levine gives what I take to be undue consideration to the "zombie H2O" thesis developed in Block and Stalnaker which was supposed to show that if the conceivability of zombies shows that consciousness doesn't follow from microphysical facts then ordinary macroscopic truths don't either. In a way it is admirable how carefully Levine treats this issue, by postulating two kinds of conceivability, etc. (This is a common theme these days.) On the other hand, arguably one shouldn't waste time chasing down every stray skeptic, no matter how big their names may be. I'm just a mathematician, but didn't the first conceivability argument already settle this issue? Didn't this particular serve-and-volley session end when Block and Stalnaker netted their return? Levine is undeniably thorough, but it seems to me that restraint is sometimes in order and that perhaps not every single step has to be taken via exhaustive argument. Surely judgment must have its place as well; I took it that this was how we ranked the philosophers of antiquity, for example. I'd like to see Levine be a bit more opinionated in spots, and take a stand for at least one position, somewhere. Indeed, I get a strange (possibly imagined) feeling throughout this book that, left to his own devices, i.e. in the absence of "philosophical peer pressure", this author would probably eventually turn to some form of dualism, where his heart seems plainly to lie. Ultimately, he doesn't, concluding that "the mind body problem is just that...a problem," and even more tellingly, "I'm sure materialism must be true, though for the life of me I don't see how." (Is the reason you're sure, Joe, that just about everyone says so?)
At any rate all of this is nit-picking, because the book is for the most part terrific. Be warned, however, that all the chapter titles are Jimi Hendrix lyrics, who Levine credits (Jimi Hendrix?!? you ask, incredulously) with having taught him to "kiss the sky" or some such silliness. The suggestion seems to be that the book is best "experienced" with a side of one's favorite hallucinogen...I haven't tried this though.
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