The ego tunnel : the science of the mind and the myth of the self

Title: The ego tunnel : the science of the mind and the myth of the self

Author: Thomas Metzinger

Pages: 276

Call Number: BF311 .M47 2009

Synopsis: Thomas Metzinger directs the Theoretical Philosophy Group and the Neuroethics Research Unit at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and is an Adjunct Fellow at the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies. He is currently President of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. He has written and edited ten books including Being No One, Conscious Experience, and Neural Correlates of Consciousness. He lives near Frankfurt, Germany.

We’re used to thinking about the self as an independent entity, something that we either have or are. In The Ego Tunnel, philosopher Thomas Metzinger claims otherwise: No such thing as a self exists. The conscious self is the content of a model created by our brain—an internal image, but one we cannot experience as an image. Everything we experience is “a virtual self in a virtual reality.”

But if the self is not “real,” why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct it? Do we still have souls, free will, personal autonomy, or moral accountability? In a time when the science of cognition is becoming as controversial as evolution,The Ego Tunnelprovides a stunningly original take on the mystery of the mind.