Introduction: Science and Values. Consciousness: 'A Fact Without Parallel'. Value-free Science: Galileo and Darwin. Sympathy as a Capacity. How Religions Work: A Comparison with Psychoanalysis. The Ownership of Consciousness and the Uniqueness of Subjects. Mapping a Detour: Why Did Freud Speak of a Death Drive? An Outline of a 'Contemplative Position'. Selves and No-selves. The Basis of Responsible Commitment.
David M. Black is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society/ Institute of Psychoanalysis and a founder member of the Foundation for Psychotherapy and Counselling (WPF). He works in London. He has written and lectured widely on science, religion and consciousness studies and is the editor of Psychoanalysis and Religion in the 21st Century: Competitors or Collaborators? (Routledge, 2006).
"Black makes the thoroughly convincing argument that, if the
foundation of values cannot be located in a realm beyond the
physical, it has to be found within the world of the physical-
within the material world itself. This necessitates a redefinition
of the physical world that allows there to be a place for
'subjects'... [this book] is a timely publication. It carries an
optimistic message for it shows that, when Man finally turns his
scientific eye on the human subject, he finds embedded in this
human core the living template from which religion, science and the
values of love and care took origin." - Kenneth Wright, British
Journal of Psychotherapy, 2012, Vol.28, No.2
"Black makes the thoroughly convincing argument that, if the
foundation of values cannot be located in a realm beyond the
physical, it has to be found within the world of the physical-
within the material world itself. This necessitates a redefinition
of the physical world that allows there to be a place for
'subjects'... [this book] is a timely publication. It carries an
optimistic message for it shows that, when Man finally turns his
scientific eye on the human subject, he finds embedded in this
human core the living template from which religion, science and the
values of love and care took origin." - Kenneth Wright, British
Journal of Psychotherapy, 2012, Vol.28, No.2"The rigour of Black's
thinking, combined with his deep sense of wonder and subtle
appreciation for the varieties of human experience, makes this book
a valuable contribution to the psychology of meaning. The
thoughtful reader and reflective psychotherapist will greatly
benefit from it" - R. J. Chisholm, Self & Society"David Black's
chosen task encompasses how it may be that in a world dominated by
scitific objectivist Weltanschauungen, there mayu still be both
reason and need for the values that we associate with the religious
life... As I would aver that we have no fixed notion of the healthy
individual, we are left with reading such works as David Black's
Why Things Matter and playing with ideas such as his that some
admixture of values, aesthetics and intersubjective living... make
life worthwhile. For me, reading David Black's volume mattered!"
-Howard H. Covitz Ph.D., ABPP, American Journal of Psychoanalysis,
2014
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