Raymond Tallis
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Raymond Tallis (born 1946 in Liverpool, England) is a leading British gerontologist, philosopher, poet, novelist and cultural critic.
Tallis is one of five children of Edward Tallis, a small businessman. On leaving public school, he went up to Oxford University to read for a degree in medicine, and went on to do post-graduate work at St Thomas' Hospital in London. He retired in 2006 as Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester.[1]
As well as being a leading figure in British medicine, Tallis has also written numerous books on philosophy and is perhaps best known for his attack on postmodernism in books such as Not Saussure,[2] Theorrhoea and After[3] and for his attack upon the assumptions of much artificial intelligence research in his book Why the Mind is Not a Computer: A Pocket Dictionary on Neuromythology.[4] However, he has also published volumes of poetry, plays and novels.
The focus of his philosophical writings has been an attempt to supply an anthropology that acknowledges what is distinctive - and remarkable - about human beings. To this end his most recent work has been a trilogy of books entitled The Hand;[5] I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being;[6] and The Knowing Animal.[7] Raymond Tallis has recently (2007) finished Unthinkable Thought: The enduring significance of Parmenides. His latest book on the human head, The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head was published in April 2008.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ Andrew Brown "The ardent atheist", - interview with Raymond Tallis in The Guardian, April 29, 2006. Retrieved on 21 July 2007.
- ^ Raymond Tallis, Not Saussure: A Critique of Post-Saussurean Literary Theory, Macmillan Press 1988, 2nd ed. 1995.
- ^ Raymond Tallis, Theorrhoea and After, Macmillan, 1998
- ^ Raymond Tallis, Why the Mind is Not a Computer: A Pocket Dictionary on Neuromythology, Imprint Academic, 2004.
- ^ Raymond Tallis, The Hand: A philosophical inquiry into human being, Edinburgh University Press, 2003
- ^ Raymond Tallis, I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being, 2004, Edinburgh University Press
- ^ Raymond Tallis, The Knowing Animal: A Philosophical Inquiry into Knowledge and Truth,Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
- ^ Catherine O'Brien, "Why we kiss, laugh, yawn and cry" - interview with Raymond Tallis in The Times, March 25 2008.
