Owen Flanagan's The Bodhisattva's Brain: Buddhism Naturalized is not a book about Buddhism. It is a book about Owen Flanagan's ideas and opinions about Buddhism, most of which seem to me to be beside any number of points.
This is not to say the book is completely without value. If you have a deep interest in western philosophy, Flanagan's musings on, say, "happiness" as understood by Aristotle might be fascinating. But Flanagan is locked into a cognitive/materialist view wrapped in several layers of western cultural conditioning, which means he has nothing useful to say about Buddhism as far as I'm concerned.
The basic purpose of the book is twofold: One, he explores whether Buddhism has anything to offer the 21st century West. The answer is, maybe, inasmuch as it can be reconciled to western philosophical views, and if all the superstitious "claptrap" (Flanagan's word) about karma and rebirth can be eliminated.
Second, he spends a lot of time on the neurophysicalism of mental states, or the view that all mental states must have a physiological basis. While he doesn't firmly commit to that view, he certainly doesn't want to let go of it.
Most distressingly, Flanagan writes of anatta, impermanence, and other Buddhist teachings as if "wisdom" were merely a matter of cognitive knowledge. Indeed, one of his criticisms of "traditional" Buddhism is that it lacks conceptual clarity. To me, this is a bit like saying golf would be so much more fun if one didn't have to knock the silly ball around with a club.
Needless to say, genuine awakening (bodhi) as Buddhists understand it is not on his radar. In short, Flanagan thinks Buddhism would be really keen if it could be re-worked to conform to (his) conventional views.
Flanagan may be a lovely and well-meaning human being, and since he's got a string of academic degrees he's invited to write and speak about Buddhism to wider audiences. But, truly, he doesn't get it, and for a serious practitioner the book is a waste of time.
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