Description: A philosophical work that addresses the validity of the question: What is it for the human being to be an animal, and for this animal to be a spirit? Braine argues that the perspectives of materialism and dualism are different casts of the same flawed mold and offers a holistic alternative. Braine further argues that perception is inseparable from behavior and that the human propensity to produce language separates us from other animals. Culminating in a discussion of the meaning of death, this is rich and passionate philosophical argument for the human being as animal and soul.
Brief description: David Braine (1940-2017) was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. From 1965-89 he was a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen He was awarded a Gifford Fellowship from 1982-1988. Following complications after his spinal injury of 1977, he took medical retirement in 1989, becoming Honorary Lecturer 1989-2002, and Honorary Research Fellow in 2002.