Raymond Tallis
 |
This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2011) |
Raymond Tallis F.Med.Sci., F.R.C.P., F.R.S.A. (born 1946 in Liverpool) is a British philosopher, secular humanist, poet, novelist, cultural critic and retired medical doctor.
Contents |
[edit] Medical career
On leaving Liverpool College, Tallis gained an Open Scholarship to Keble College, Oxford where he completed a degree in animal physiology in 1967. He completed his medical degree in 1970 at the University of Oxford and St Thomas' Hospital in London. From 1996 to 2000, he was Consultant Adviser in Care of the Elderly to the Chief Medical Officer. In 1999-2000, he was Vice-Chairman of the Stroke Task Force of the Advisory Group developing the National Service Framework for Older People. He has been on the Standing Medical Advisory Committee and the Council of the Royal College of Physicians and was secretary of the Joint Specialist Committee of the Royal College on Health Care of the Elderly between 1995 and 2003. He was a member of the Joint Task Force on Partnership in Medicine Taking, established by Alan Milburn, the Secretary of State for Health, in 2001. For three years he was a member of one of the appraisal panels of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence. He retired in 2006 as Emeritus Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester.[1]
[edit] Philosophical works
Tallis has attacked post-structuralism in books such as Not Saussure,[2] Theorrhoea and After[3] and the assumptions of much artificial intelligence research in his book Why the Mind is Not a Computer: A Pocket Dictionary on Neuromythology.[4] He has also published volumes of poetry, plays and novels. His philosophical writings have attempted to supply an anthropology that acknowledges what is distinctive - and remarkable - about human beings. To this end he has written a trilogy of books entitled The Hand;[5] I Am: A Philosophical Inquiry into First-Person Being;[6] and The Knowing Animal.[7]
In 2007, Raymond Tallis finished Unthinkable Thought: The enduring significance of Parmenides. In April 2008, his book about the human head, The Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head, was published.[8] His book Michelangelo's Finger: An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence was published in 2010.[9]
Aping Mankind was published in 2011.[10]
[edit] Other work
He is on the list of Distinguished Supporters of the British Humanist Association[11]. Tallis is also a Patron of Dignity in Dying. On 15 September 2010, Tallis, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK.[12]
[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.
- ^ Tallis R. Michelangelo's Finger: An Exploration of Everyday Transcendence. 2010 (1 Feb), Atlantic Books. ISBN 1848871198; ISBN 978-1848871199
- ^ Tallis R. Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and theMisrepresentation of Humanity. 2011 (30 Jun), Acumen. ISBN 1844652726; ISBN 978-1844652723
- ^ Humanism.org - distinguished supporters
- ^ "Letters: Harsh judgments on the pope and religion". The Guardian (London). 15 September 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/harsh-judgments-on-pope-religion. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
