These essays from one of our most stimulating thinkers showcase Tallis's infectious fascination, indeed intoxication, with the infinite complexity of human lives and the human condition. In the title essay, we join Tallis on a stroll around his local park - and the intricate passages of his own consciousness - as he uses the motif of the walk, the amble, to occasion a series of meditations on the freedoms that only human beings possess. In subsequent essays, the flaneur thinks about his brain, his relationship to the rest of the animal kingdom, his profession of medicine and about the physical world and the claims of physical science to have rendered philosophical reflection obsolete. Taken together the essays continue Tallis's mission to elaborate a vision of humanity that rejects religious myths while not succumbing to scientism or any other form of naturalism. Written with the author's customary intellectual energy and vigour these essays provoke, move and challenge us to think differently about who we are and our place in the material world.

About the Author
Raymond Tallis trained as a doctor before going on to become Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research in clinical neuroscience. He retired from medicine in 2006 to become a full-time writer. He has published over a dozen books of cultural criticism and philosophical anthropology including, most recently, "The Kingdom of Infinite Space" (2008), "Aping Mankind" (Acumen, 2011), and "In Defence of Wonder" (Acumen, 2012).

Reviews
"This book will be my companion for life" - A. N. Wilson, The Spectator



Book Information
ISBN 9781844656660
Author Raymond Tallis
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Acumen Publishing Ltd
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 340g