Reflections on a Metaphysical Flaneur, by Raymond Tallis - review

There are books we read for pleasure and there are books we are paid to review. However enjoyable the books we review, they are still, in some sense, ‘work’, and my attitude to them is different. Even when reading them with delight, I find myself ticking off the pages, as so much ‘job done’.

I was sent this book weeks ago. But I forgot that I was meant to review it. I have been carrying it round with me, reading and rereading, and it has been like the most engaging, stimulating conversation with an unpredictable, witty new friend. Only lately did I remember that I was actually expected by the Lit Ed to say what I thought about it.

Raymond Tallis was the Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester, but he is also well-read in philosophy, and interested, particularly, in the philosophy of mind. He identifies as ‘one of the world’s fastest growing faiths’ the simple identification of minds with brains, the reduction of all human creativity and activity — jokes, music, poetry, personality — to purely neural activity.