Promotional Information

Peter Tse boldly attacks the problem of how conscious thoughts can influence the world. His book is not a repetition of eristic yet ultimately tired logical arguments dating back to the ancient Greeks. It's a breath of fresh air, examining the biophysics of synapses and neurons, to offer a testable hypothesis of how the mental causes the physical. -- Christof Koch, chief scientific officer, Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle; author of Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist Peter Tse gives us a full frontal assault on the neuroscience of the will. He brings in the relevant science and shows how mental causation is neuronal causation -- detailing where, how, and why it happens. A fascinating read for serious neuroscientists and philosophers. -- Patrick Cavanagh, Professeur des universites, Universite Paris Descartes, and Research Professor, Harvard University and Dartmouth College This book is a fascinating, philosophically informed exploration of the neural underpinnings of mental causation, mental representation, consciousness, and free will. Tse's approach is tough-minded, open-minded, and refreshing. We've heard from several neuroscientists recently that free will is an illusion. Tse ably defends an opposing view. -- Alfred Mele, Department of Philosophy, Florida State University

About the Author

Peter Ulric Tse is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014.

Reviews

... a groundbreaking new paradigm about how the mind works.—New York Journal of Books

I love Tse's book. It has literally set me free. It explains these ideas in full glory, in exquisite detail...—Stephen Macknik, Scientific American