The New Yorker has a piece by David Brooks on "how the new sciences of human nature can help make sense of a life." Some interesting stuff, although I think it was a mistake to present things in terms of a model young man. Heres an introductory paragraph:

We are living in the middle of a revolution in consciousness. Over the past few decades, geneticists, neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists, and others have made great strides in understanding the inner working of the human mind. Far from being dryly materialistic, their work illuminates the rich underwater world where character is formed and wisdom grows. They are giving us a better grasp of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, predispositions, character traits, and social bonding, precisely those things about which our culture has least to say. Brain science helps fill the hole left by the atrophy of theology and philosophy.

But I wonder if by the endhe hasnt returned to some of the key themes of theology and philosophy. The essay could raise the question, however, of the relationship between these sciences and the two traditional disciplines.(I would also love to know whether Brooks has ever studied philosophy or theology.)