De La Mettrie's Ghost: The Story Of Decisions

by Chris Nunn

This book is about how we make choices. Drawing together evidence from 21st century chemistry to Victorian politics, enlightenment philosophy, Roman drama and beyond, it is a compelling hunt for the nature of free will.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

243 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Anne Mayer]

Investigating the question of free will, Chris Nunn surveys disciplines of philosophy, psychiatry, religion, genetics, and neuroscience to understand how humans choose. Taking his title from French philosopher Julien del la Mettrie, the French doctor who wrote the book “Man a Machine, Nunn is interested in how and whether we choose to do what we do; or whether we are no different from machines that are designed without freedom to choose what tasks they perform.

Although presented as easily accessible to a lay reader without foundation in the arts and sciences he explores, I nevertheless found this book dense and filled with what seemed to me to be frequent meanderings down some dead-end alleys. In the end, I concurred with Douglas Hofstadter who Nunn quotes as saying that even if we don’t have free will, we do have free won’t. I’m pretty sure I freely decided not to finish the book., but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to a more serious reader than I.

[Elizabeth]

A very interesting study of the nature of free will. I enjoyed the journey through different modes of thought on the subject as well as the scientific and biological aspects of the subject. Chris Nunn's writing is generally accessible and he builds an interesting case. Very thought-provoking.

[Frank Spencer]

his story idea helps with understanding; we're still a long ways from understanding consciousness and free will