A few in the humanities have charged neuroscience with offering answers to questions it has no power to address. While conceding the charge here I argue, first, that many in the humanities are guilty of the same crime, second, that brain imaging gives incriminating evidence of this, third, that consideration of the brain in attempts to explain thought and behaviour is no less natural than consideration of other involuntarily expressive parts of the body, and fourth that frequently no other explanation is possible. Finally, I suggest that far from undermining it, neuroscience offers the best defence of a vital conception of the person our times will allow.
