Anthony J. Sanford, The Nature and Limits of Human Understanding:The 2001 Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow (London: T & T Clark, 2003), xvii + 259 Pps., $72.00.

Anthony J. Sanford, F.B.PsS. is Professor of Psychology, University of Glasgow. Herein, he has both contributed to and edited a selection of essays that seek to move toward grasping how we as humans understand, and how our understanding is limited. Are there any limits to understanding? Any generalizations?

This book is an exploration of human understanding, based on the 2001 Gifford Lectures, from the perspectives of psychology, philosophy, biology and theology. Five different contributors, among the most internationally eminent in their fields, provide two essays a piece to make up the five parts, and include the following: Lynne Rudder Baker (Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts), who contributes two chapters on knowledge and understanding; Brian Hebblethwaite (former lecturer in the Philosophy of Religion, University of Cambridge), who offers two chapters on metaphysics and theology; Phillip Johnson-Laird FRS (Professor of Psychology, Princeton University), who provides two chapters on the psychology of understanding; George Lakoff, Professor of Linguistics (University of Berkeley), who offers two chapters on the embodied mind; and Michael Ruse (Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University), who provides two essays on evolutionary naturalism. In what follows, some select points shall be highlighted from various essays found herein.

Johnson-Laird argues that it is possible to join together the ideas of mental modes with ideas of limited complexity to arrive at possible explanations for some of our errors in reasoning. He then goes on to entertain the possibility that a higher intelligence than humans could possibly be on the frontier of emergence. Lakoff explores how the body shapes thought, arguing that understanding is inherently embodied, and that its embodiment leads to a metaphorical system of thought and speech. Ruse sets forth a distinctly Darwinian understanding of epistemology and ethics, respectively, in his two chapters, arguing in the latter that culture and biology are inseparable, and as a result inevitably discusses some aspects of Social Darwinism. Rudder Baker departs from the scientific, and instead focuses upon the philosophical aspects of both first-person and third-person understanding, essentially promoting a view of knowledge in which physical properties can help identify a substance or thing, but cannot fully exhaust what is to be known of its reality. Hebblethwaite’s essays, while defining theology as metaphysics plus revelation, explore what metaphysics and theology, respectively, may add to a scientific account of the properties and composition of the world.

All in all, although the contents are scholarly, the writing is non-technical insomuch as a virtual novice could easily grasp the content of each chapter. As such, no background in psychology, philosophy or theology is presumed. I consider this book to be quite unique, worthwhile (especially the chapters by Ruse), and it is recommended for those who are interested in the human condition and our search for knowledge and understanding.

Bradford McCall

Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA