Science, according to the received wisdom of the day, can answer any question we
choose to put to it - even the most fundamental about ourselves, our behaviour
and our cultures. But for Mary Midgley it can never be the whole story, as it ca
nnot truly explain what it means to be human. In this typically crusading work,
universally acclaimed as a classic on first publication, she powerfully asserts
her corrective view that without poetry (or literature, or music, or history, or
even theology) we cannot hope to understand our humanity.
In this remarkable
book, the reader is struck by both the simplicity and power of her argument and
the sheer pleasure of reading one of our most accessible philosophers.
