What Do We Really Know?

Preface. Am I a Ghost in a Machine? - The search for consciousness. What is Human Nature? - The problem of interpretation. Am I Free? - Choices and responsibility. What Do We Know? - Virtual realities and valuable authorities. Are We Rational Animals? - Reason in theory and practice. How Can I Lie to Myself? - Self-deception, seduction and motivation. Is There Such a Thing as Society? - The individual and the group. Can We Understand Each Other? - Treating words carefully. Can Machines Think? - Artificial intelligence and cognitive powers. Why Be Good? - Annoying behaviour and annoying questions. Is It All Relative? - Problems of toleration, truth and confidence. Does Time Go By? - The strange river of time. Why Do Things Keep on Keeping on? - Problems of constancy and chaos. Why is There Something and Not Nothing? - The strange ways of being. What Fills Up Space? - The curious nature of things and their properties. What is Beauty? - The fatal attraction of things. Do We Need God? - Hope, consolation and judgement. What is it All For? - The pursuit of the meaning of life. What are My Rights? - Positive, negative and natural rights. Is Death to be Feared? - The awful abyss of extinction. Notes. Key Philosophers. Index.