Science writer and bio-philosopher Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D., M.P.P. puts doubt in perspective, demonstrating with wit and clarity how the handful of difficult choices that gnaw at you have gnawed adaptively and productively at organisms since the origin of life itself. An uplifting journey through the meaning of life science filled with insights for making better decisions and feeling better about the decisions you make; a broad and encompassing sweep--disarming, playful, and yet profound, this is a groundbreaking synthesis of biology, philosophy, and practical decision theory speaking directly...

If the universe is aimless, how do selves and aims emerge? Why do living beings have aims when inanimate things do not? Current science encourages us to reject the ghost-in-the-machine explanation--that something called spirit, soul, mind, or will was somehow breathed into matter--and instead accept that selves are just matter, in aimless mechanistic motion like everything else. But what about life's many emergent qualities, the multifarious purposes that shape actual physical behavior not just in human lives, but in all of life? Even the simplest life forms have adaptive functions, traits...