Marilynne Robinson
Absence of Mind: The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self.
Yale University Press, 2010. First printing. 9780300145182 xviii/158 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 5.5" x 8.25", is bound in off-white paper-covered boards, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book and dust jacket are like new.
In this ambitious book, acclaimed writer Marilynne Robinson applies her astute intellect to some of the most vexing topics in the history of human thought—science, religion, and consciousness. Crafted with the same care and insight as her award-winning novels, "Absence of Mind" challenges postmodern atheists who crusade against religion under the banner of science. In Robinson’s view, scientific reasoning does not denote a sense of logical infallibility, as thinkers like Richard Dawkins might suggest. Instead, in its purest form, science represents a search for answers. It engages the problem of knowledge, an aspect of the mystery of consciousness, rather than providing a simple and final model of reality.