"A tour-de-force intellectual history that studies one of the most enduring problems in Western thought, namely, connecting the processes of the mind with the anatomical brain. . . . This book will appeal to scholars of modern French thought, historians of science, and humanists seeking to enrich their account of the human spirit."

Choice

“In this deeply researched, intellectually pioneering, and wonderfully stimulating new study, McGrath shows that Henri Bergson hoped to renovate his tradition of French spiritualism for a new age, and drew on cutting-edge natural scientific findings to do so. Making Spirit Matter is a scholarly triumph, relevant for how humanists negotiate their own relationship to natural science today.”

Samuel Moyn, Yale University

“Ever since Descartes tore apart the metaphysical bond between mind and world—between res cogitans and res extensa—philosophers and scientists have been pondering the question of how the wound might be healed. In this fascinating and carefully researched study, McGrath explores how thinkers offered new answers to this old puzzle, and how the threadbare idea of spirit found a new and more respectable incarnation in the scientific languages of neurology and psychology. A truly fascinating chapter in the intellectual history of modern France.”

Peter E. Gordon, Harvard University