Consciousness and Freedom. Three Views by Pratima Bowes (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 888 theologians to vulgarize specialized fields for ulterior purposes. The works of ecologists, futurologists, and novelists seem to be those most frequently violated, although in this particular case it appears to be the perceptions of Nathan Scott, Jacques Maritain, and other students of religion's role in literature. Even more depressing is Evans' total reliance on isolated, individual cerebrations as the focal category for human faith. He pretends that human choices are made by one's self, in complete conformity with rational precepts, and according only to evidence (or lack of it). His only word of corporate involvement in faith, of dependence upon community for belief, hope, joy, and love is the word of dedication "to Charles and Pearline Evans, who first pushed me along the way." Good grief! Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky Louis WEEKS Consciousness and Freedom. Three Views. By PRATIMA BoWEs. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1971. Pp. ~50. $8.75. The three views of consciousness and freedom which, according to its subtitle, are to be investigated in this volume are characterized in the titles of its main chapters as the materialist-behaviorist view (1 ff.), the phenomenological -existentialist view, (110 ff.) and two Indian views (167 ff.). The discussion of the introduction (VII ff.) which was written following the advice of Prof. Patrick Corbett and the summary of " some concluding remarks" (~17 ff.) seem to be added to justify the choice of these philosophies of mind and " to bring out, on a much clearer level, certain basic themes which occur throughout the book without being systematically put together." (VII ftn.) The prevailing behaviorist-materialist way of thinking about the mind is found in no way to be demanded by the intellectual and cultural context of our time, as scientifically-minded philosophers pretend; for this modern " understanding of mind as determined and physically based ... was already grasped by an ancient philosophical system in India," and the intuitively experienced self-transcending dimension of the human mind is rightly emphasized by Husserl and Sartre in spite of the same intellectual climate that induces materialist philosophers to propose their identity theory as " a product of modern scientific attitude." Both materialist and non-materialist views of the human mind are one-sided, based on a personal preference, " not forced upon us by the nature of things." " A philosopher finds that one or the other dimension is more important or valuable, depending on what he thinks human life is like or 334 BOOK REVIEWS ought to be like, and on the basis of this preference builds a theory to show how what he takes mind to consist of ... is the central fact by means of which everything about man, his behavior and experience, can be accounted for." (XVIII f.) Thus the behaviorist-materialist scheme of studying man which claims to be scientific reveals the value-judgment determining its philosophy of mind in its view of the scientific method. It is generally admitted that science as such is physical science; " whatever can be studied successfully by the method of science is physical." However, this fact does not imply " that whatever cannot be or is not being studied by science does not exist, or that if it does appear to exist it must be an illusion, nor even that it must be one day, with further progress in science, accessible to scientific methodology." Yet all of these assumptions represent guiding principles of behavioristic philosophizing. Behaviorism does not recognize that there is an aspect of human behavior, that is, human consciousness and its influence upon behavior, which is not amenable to the method of physics; it rather " claims instead that this other aspect does not exist.... So the adoption of a methodology which leaves this out, already expresses a value judgment that the type of fact it studies is the only type that is important for us to understand about man." (X f.) The behaviorist interpretation of human existence and the materialist identification of the mind with a function of the brain identify the conscious with the mental. And since " the mental, as recent researches in neurophysiology and computer functioning show, can be identified with the physical with some gain in clarity and understanding...