Not everything we do can be explained by neuroscience and evolutionary theory, argues renowned neuroscientist, philosopher and fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences Professor Raymond Tallis. He fears that government social policy is increasingly being informed by the notion that the physical processes of the brain, not our conscious mind, directs our actions. Tallis, former professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester and now a full-time writer, exposes the faulty philosophical foundations of biologically-based thinking and its attempts to explain criminality, art, economic behaviour and religious belief.

Neuroscience is making astounding progress and will help us to manage brain diseases, says Tallis, but it has a dark companion in neuromania – the belief that human consciousness and behaviour can be reduced to purely neural terms.