Renowned moral philosopher Mary Midgley tackles these pressing questions and more in her powerful new book. She asks how can we bring together the depersonalized picture of ourselves which we draw from science with the personal attitudes by which we live -- how can we harmonize science and poetry?

With her customary clear style and sharp prose, Midgley points out that the fields of science and poetry are not really hostile kingdoms. They are, instead, parts of our wider world-view -- snapshots taken from different angles. It is because we hold them apart that we go wrong on a host of problems, from the relation between mind and body to global warming and the debate about memes.