Overview

Crimes of Reason collects eight philosophical essays examining conceptual frameworks in cognitive science, psychology, and parapsychology. Some essays are expanded versions of previously published work; others were written specifically for this volume.¹ The collection falls into four broad categories: critiques of mechanistic explanation in behavioral and life sciences (including Braude’s rejection of memory-trace theory and his review of Sheldrake’s morphic resonance hypothesis), analysis of folk psychology versus inner-cause theories of behavior, explorations of dissociation and multiple personality, and examinations of parapsychological abilities and their relationship to religious worldviews.¹ The book represents Braude’s ongoing philosophical project of defending human experience against reductive scientific models that dismiss what cannot be captured in laboratory conditions.¹

Central argument

The book’s core claim is that both mainstream cognitive science and experimental parapsychology commit the same fundamental error: privileging controlled laboratory methods over the broader patterns of lived human experience necessary for genuine understanding.¹ In cognitive science, this manifests as inner cause theory, which attempts to explain behavior exclusively through brain states while ignoring the situational contexts that make actions intelligible.¹ Braude argues that folk psychology — with its appeal to intentions, character traits, developmental stages, and social contexts — provides superior explanations precisely because it accommodates what he calls action space: the lived milieu within which behavior actually occurs.¹

In parapsychology, the same methodological constriction produces what Braude considers a distorted picture of psi. Formal experiments tell us virtually nothing about the nature of psychic functioning, he argues, because the most interesting, compelling, and illuminating parapsychological data comes from venues outside the lab.¹ Laboratory conditions may actually suppress the very phenomena researchers seek to study, while spontaneous cases and real-world applications reveal psi operating in its natural context — embedded in social situations, emotional dynamics, and unconscious motivations.¹

Key concepts

• Action space — The situational field within which human behavior occurs, accommodating intentions, social contexts, developmental stages, and anticipations of consequences that physical space and computational models cannot contain.¹ Action space is defined by the larger patterns of action necessary for explaining behavior, including the intentions of agents and the temporal unfolding of situations.¹
• Inner cause theory — The view in cognitive science that behavior is caused exclusively by brain states, and that explanation consists in locating the neural activity producing the behavior.¹ Braude argues this theory fails because both bodily movements and the posited inner causes occur at too low a level of description to adequately classify and systematize behavior.¹
• Folk psychology — Ordinary explanations of behavior that appeal to beliefs, desires, intentions, character traits, and social contexts rather than brain states or computational processes.¹ Braude defends folk psychology as providing satisfactory and productive explanations where inner cause theory cannot.¹
• Everyday psi — The hypothesis that psychokinesis and extrasensory perception may be more prevalent in ordinary social situations than commonly thought, operating unconsciously to affect decisions, health outcomes, accidents, and interpersonal dynamics.¹ Braude speculates that everyday PK might blend smoothly and imperceptibly into ordinary surrounding events, affecting phenomena we usually believe are independent of psychic influence.¹

Evidence marshaled

The book draws primarily on conceptual analysis rather than new empirical data. In the essay on memory, Braude presents philosophical arguments against trace theory — the view that memory consists of data stored in the brain.¹ His review of Sheldrake’s morphic resonance hypothesis concludes that the theory is seriously flawed despite Braude’s personal friendship with Sheldrake.¹

The essays on multiple personality extend analyses from Braude’s earlier book First Person Plural, examining dissociation and moral responsibility.¹ The parapsychology essays draw on the broader literature of spontaneous cases and historical investigations rather than controlled experiments, consistent with Braude’s methodological critique.¹

Significance

The book represents a sustained philosophical challenge to methodological orthodoxy in both mainstream psychology and parapsychology. Braude’s concept of action space has been noted as potentially bridging philosophical analysis and esoteric traditions, with one reviewer suggesting parallels between action space and the astral plane described in occult literature — though the reviewer emphasizes this connection as a way to demystify occult claims rather than validate metaphysical systems.¹

The work continues Braude’s career-long project of defending the evidential value of spontaneous cases and real-world phenomena against the privileging of laboratory replicability. His argument that formal experiments tell us virtually nothing about the nature of psychic functioning challenges a core assumption of experimental parapsychology.¹

The book has been cited in discussions of practical psi applications, including remote viewing for intelligence gathering and crime-solving, where real-world context is essential.² It appears in bibliographies alongside Braude’s other major works on survival, physical mediumship, and the philosophy of psychokinesis.³

Reception

Reviewer Stan McDaniel praised the book’s high level of professional philosophical analysis while noting that some readers unfamiliar with sophisticated philosophical methods may find passages requiring re-reading.¹ McDaniel emphasized that Braude writes with clarity, provides many examples to increase understanding, and offers delightful humor based on personal life experiences.¹

McDaniel characterized the essays as overflowing with idea potential, noting that he could not read far in any essay without being stimulated to think more about various points and the relations between essays.¹ He particularly highlighted the essay “In Defense of Folk Psychology” as exemplary of Braude’s overall approach to the issues taken up in the book.¹

The review recommended that readers not bypass the meatier essays on mechanistic explanation to turn only to the more exotic parapsychological topics, arguing that the two areas of interest are closely related in their shared concern with the proper relation between science and human experience.¹