Written with Tallis's customary energy and vigor, these essays endeavour to elaborate a vision of humanity that rejects religious myths while not succumbing to scientism or other forms of naturalism.

Overture: Reflections of a Metaphysical Flaneur Part I: Brains, Persons and Beasts 1. Am I My Brain? 2. Was Schubert a Musical Brain? 3. Wickedness and Wit: Is It All in the Brain? 4. Are Conscious Machines Possible? 5. David Chalmers's Unsuccessful Search for the Conscious Mind 6. A Conversation with My Neighbour 7. Silk: Metamorphoses Beyond Biology Part II: Philosophy and Physics 8. Should We Just Shut Up and Calculate? Does Physics Need Philosophy? 9. You Chemical Scum, You 10. Did Time Begin with a Bang? 11. A Hasty Report from a Tearing Hurry Part III: Philosophy and Physic 12. Medical Ethics in the Real Mess of the Real World 13. On Caring and Not Caring 14. Coinages of the Mind: Hallucinations 15. Becoming the Prisoners of Our Free Choices 16. The Right to an Assisted Death Epilogue: And So to Bed: Notes towards a Philosophy of Sleep from A to Zzzzzzz