This is your host, Michael Sherman, and you're listening to Science Salon, a series of conversations

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So thanks for coming on the show.

Let me give you a proper introduction for those who are listening

that don't know much about the topic, or you or me.

You are a British philosopher.

You've held posts and professorships at University College London,

the University of Oxford, Rutgers University and the University of Miami. And if you go to Amazon,

there's a long list of important books, philosophy of language, philosophical provocations,

inborn knowledge. My favorite, the mysterious flame, conscious minds and a material world. That's a great title and that's the subject

we'll be talking about today. Your latest book is prehension, the hand in

the emergence of humanity. Just out from MIT Press last year. I should also note parenthetically you've written books on movies, the power of movies, how screen and mind interact, and Shakespeare's philosophy discovering the meaning behind the plays. you wrote a memoir in 2003 the making of a philosopher.

So and I kind of scanned through that it was amusing to see some of your background and your interesting

battles with people like Dan Dennett. And it's always fun to know that other people disagree

with each other and other fields as well.

So, but before we get into the topic of today, which is triggered by my Scientific American

...