About book Absence Of Mind: The Dispelling Of Inwardness From The Modern Myth Of The Self (2010)
Robinson's most heady material to date, Absence of Mind fashions an argument exposing the "parascience" of the new atheists, tracing its historical roots in the positivist movement of Auguste Comte, and carving out a space to speak of the significant unknowns in our conception of human beings. As Robinson complicates the simplistic narrative of the new atheist materialists, she allows space to conceive of human beings in ways that push at the boundaries of our understanding. This beautiful mystery about humanity captivates Robinson, and much of her argument centers on the mind in our conception of humanity, that means by which we have the ability to ask great questions and be self-critical. Robinson was invited by Yale to give the Terry lectures on the relationship between science and religion. These essays are the result of that invitation. It is quite easy to see why Yale wanted Robinson to give these lectures (in 2009). She had produced a first novel that was luminescent in its implied spirituality and, after that, Gilead, which explicitly deals with two Christian ministers and their theological beliefs--in an extraordinarily moving fashion. She had also published her fine essays on religion and science--the Death of Adam. So, she was a natural for this year-long position. However, this work occasionally has the aura of made-to-order work and does not, on the whole, have the punch of her earlier set of essays, Death of Adam. Having said that, her original essay on Freud (which, for whatever reasons, some other reviewers didn't like) I found one of the best pieces on Freud I have ever read. According to Robinson, many of the salient features of Freud's psychosexual theories can be traced back to the anti-Semitism he confronted in Vienna in the earlier twentieth century, which such passions were becoming virulently violent. The predominant view was that Jews were artificial and cosmopolitan outsiders who were not part of the rhetoric of racial and national authenticity. Against this, Freud produced a theory that set all human beings as products of a cannibalistic devouring and murder of the father, accompanied by guilt. Fascinating and convincing, particularly to this Jewish reader. There have been other complaints about the learnedness of this book, and reading it might requite that the reader look up names and references. I enjoyed it much, without thinking it the best production of this remarkable, salient, brilliant mind.
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Wonderful arguement for the absurdity of placing religion as the arch enemy of science.
—cuppycake25
Excellent. Robinson thinks at a higher level than most in this age.
—tuwek
