About book Flesh In The Age Of Reason: The Modern Foundations Of Body And Soul (2005)
A lovely examination of the philosophy of the mind, the self, and the body. Not something I'd recommend to an entirely casual reader, for the tone is rather scholarly and geared more to someone with an interest in the subject, but for anyone who enjoys Roy Porter's work and Enlightenment philosophy (though a background in the era is certainly not required), then this book is excellent. I particularly enjoyed "Edward Gibbon: Fame and Mortality", "Sexing the Self", "Unreason", "Psychologizing the Self", "Dependent Bodies", "William Blake: The Body Mystical" and "Byron: Sexy Satire."
Excellent review of key thinkers in the Eighteenth Century regarding bodies, souls and the relationship between them. In addition to the usual suspects (Hume, Kant, etc.), he also has chapters on literary figures (Samuel Johnson, Byron, Edward Gibbon and others) and subtopics like illness, madness, death and sex. Not an easy read but not an obscure one either. He does an excellent job at the beginning of the book in giving the philosophical background to the debates. He also has a very good, 75 page (!) bibliography for further reading.
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These were the guys who "thought for our freedom"! Porter is original not only in his ability to explicate eighteenth century thinking in plain English, but especially for getting under the skin of writers and thinkers like Locke, Johnson, Goodwin, Blake and many many others. Instead of criticising from an ideological base, he empathizes with the kind of mind-wrenching psychological pain they went through to liberate consciousness from centuries of church-state dogma. We owe them so much, and Porter too for explicating it all so lucidly. Highly recommended.
—Chris
