Years ago, a colleague of limited intellectual powers accosted me with the charge that I had been telling students that the 'mind was meat'. This was my colleague's way of putting things. I then fell for the question which the charge led up to: 'So you're a materialist?' 'Yes,' I answered. To which my normally witless interlocutor responded: 'Pray tell, what is the nature of the material world?'

LRB 7 September 1995 | PDF Download