Science, according to the received wisdom of the day, can answer any
question we choose to put to it - even the most fundamental about
ourselves, our behaviour and our cultures. But for Mary Midgley it can
never be the whole story, as it cannot truly explain what it means to be
human.
In this typically crusading work, universally acclaimed as a classic on
first publication, she powerfully asserts her corrective view that
without poetry (or literature, or music, or history, or even theology)
we cannot hope to understand our humanity. In this remarkable book, the
reader is struck by both the simplicity and power of her argument and
the sheer pleasure of reading one of our most accessible philosophers.