my mind on books

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The Multitasking Mind by Dario D. Salvucci and Niels A. Taatgen (Oxford University Press, USA, 2010)

(link for amazon.co.uk)

Product description from the publisher:

Multitasking is all around us: the office worker interrupted by a phone call, the teenager texting while driving, the salesperson chatting while entering an order. When multitasking, the mind juggles all the many tasks we’re doing this second, this hour, this week, and tries to perform them together-sometimes with great ease, sometimes with great difficulty. We don’t often stop to think about how exactly we accomplish these feats of multitasking great and small. How do we switch from one task to another? What types of multitasking are disruptive, and when are they most disruptive? And ultimately, how can we take advantage of the benefits of multitasking while alleviating its negative effects in our daily lives?

This book presents the theory of threaded cognition, a theory that aims to explain the multitasking mind. The theory states that multitasking behavior can be expressed as cognitive threads-independent streams of thought that weave through the mind’s processing resources to produce multitasking behavior, and sometimes experience conflicts to produce multitasking interference. Grounded in the ACT-R cognitive architecture, threaded cognition incorporates computational representations and mechanisms used to simulate and predict multitasking behavior and performance.

The book describes the implications of threaded cognition theory across three traditionally disparate domains: concurrent multitasking (doing multiple tasks at once), sequential multitasking (interrupting and resuming tasks), and multitask skill acquisition (learning and practicing multiple tasks). The work stresses the importance of unifying basic and applied research by alternating between in-depth descriptions of basic research phenomena and broader treatments of phenomena in applied domains, such as driver distraction and human-computer interaction. The book also includes practical guidelines for designers of interactive systems intended for multitasking contexts.

See also: Multitasking on Dario Salvucci’s website, Niels Taatgen’s homepage

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages by Guy Deutscher (Metropolitan Books, 2010)

(link for amazon.co.uk)

Product description from the publisher:

A masterpiece of linguistics scholarship, at once erudite and entertaining, confronts the thorny question of how—and whether—culture shapes language and language, culture

Linguistics has long shied away from claiming any link between a language and the culture of its speakers: too much simplistic (even bigoted) chatter about the romance of Italian and the goose-stepping orderliness of German has made serious thinkers wary of the entire subject. But now, acclaimed linguist Guy Deutscher has dared to reopen the issue. Can culture influence language—and vice versa? Can different languages lead their speakers to different thoughts? Could our experience of the world depend on whether our language has a word for “blue”?

Challenging the consensus that the fundaments of language are hard-wired in our genes and thus universal, Deutscher argues that the answer to all these questions is—yes. In thrilling fashion, he takes us from Homer to Darwin, from Yale to the Amazon, from how to name the rainbow to why Russian water—a “she”—becomes a “he” once you dip a tea bag into her, demonstrating that language does in fact reflect culture in ways that are anything but trivial. Audacious, delightful, and field-changing, Through the Language Glass is a classic of intellectual discovery.

See also: recent New York Times article based on this book, Neuroanthropology.net response to NY Times article, Guy Deutscher’s website

A revised and updated edition of Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter has been issued by the University of California Press. (by Phoenix in the UK)

Product description from the publisher:

Today a brain scan reveals our thoughts and moods as clearly as an X-ray reveals our bones. We can actually observe a person’s brain registering a joke or experiencing a painful memory. In Mapping the Mind, award-winning journalist Rita Carter draws on the latest imaging technology and science to chart how human behavior and personality reflect the biological mechanisms behind thought and emotion. This acclaimed book, a complete visual guide to the coconut-sized, wrinkled gray mass we carry around inside our heads, has now been completely revised and updated throughout. Among many other topics, Carter explores obsessions and addictions, the differences between men’s and women’s brains, and memory.
• Comprehensively updated for this edition with the latest research, case studies, and contributions from distinguished scientists
• Addresses recent controversies over behavior prediction and prevention
• Includes new information on mirror neurons, unconscious cognition, and abnormalities in attention spans

See also: Author’s website

Three Questions We Never Stop Asking by Michael Kellogg (Prometheus Books, 2010)
(link for UK)

Product description from the publisher:

What can I know? What may I hope? What ought I to do? These are three questions that—however much we immerse ourselves in the whirl and concerns of everyday life—we cannot, in the end, escape. They intrude themselves, not just in times of personal crisis, but at odd moments and in varied ways. Even those who are not inclined to the discipline of philosophy or even particularly reflective will feel their force on occasion. Whether we develop satisfactory answers or not, wrestling with such questions is part of what it is to be human.

In this excellent introduction to the essential issues that have preoccupied philosophers throughout the centuries, author Michael Kellogg provides fresh and engaging portraits of the greatest thinkers on each of these questions: Plato and Wittgenstein on the possibility of philosophical knowledge; Kant and Nietzsche on the existence of God; Aristotle and Heidegger on human virtue. The first member of the pair is a builder, the second a destroyer. One explores the promise of a theory, the other the consequences of its ruin.

These juxtaposed pairs are not self-contained, however. All six thinkers are engaged in a dialogue with one another on issues that touch our lives directly and profoundly. As Nietzsche explained, “I live as if the centuries were nothing.” The author has arranged them in an order that unveils an ever-deepening understanding of the moral, spiritual and intellectual space in which our lives unfold.

For anyone wishing to discover, or rediscover, philosophy in its original meaning—”the love of wisdom”—this engaging, clearly written, and accessible volume is an excellent place to start.

Despite the title, God Soul Mind Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Reflections on the Spirit World (link for amazon.co.uk) is not primarily about religion or the spirit world from a neuroscientific perspective. Instead, gods and spirits figure as examples of a more general process of social perception that is the real focus of the work.

In a clear, reader-friendly manner, author Michael Graziano describes social perception as a mechanism for constructing simplified models of mental states and intentions. Because we are social animals we developed this capacity for constructing models of other minds. As with perception of objects, social perception is subject to illusions, such as the illusion that a ventriloquist’s dummy is a separate person.

Simplified models of intentionality consist of “point agents” assigned to spatial locations. Such mind-models are the source of concepts of spirits and souls. In this approach, for example, the God of monotheism represents “the perception of a single unified mind behind every otherwise inexplicable event.”

Graziano argues that consciousness can also be understood as a social perceptual model applied inwardly. The account of consciousness seemed to be the real core of the book, an original approach to the problem with potential applications from AI to multiple personality disorder.

Also included is a discussion of the brain circuitry involved in social perception, primarily the superior temporal polysensory (STP) area and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ).

Graziano also discusses social imitation and memes as the source of human culture. What is missing is an account of the role of culture in affecting what kinds of entities (gods, spirits, souls, etc.) are modeled by the social perceptual system.

[Thanks to Leapfrog Press for allowing me to view an advance copy via NetGalley].

Product description from the publisher:

Written for the general public, God Soul Mind Brain explores the controversial relationship between science and religion by first dismissing the “science versus religion” debate as outdated and unnecessary. The cutting-edge field of social neuroscience explains how our perceptions of our own consciousness, of other people’s minds, and of spirits and gods depend on machinery in the brain that evolved to make us socially intelligent animals. In clear prose without technical jargon, Graziano discusses his and others’ findings in this 20-year-old field of study, and the implications for human spirituality and religion. By addressing head-on the fundamental issues of human consciousness, religion, and God, and how these elements relate to the science of the brain, Graziano presents an entirely new view of religion and science.

See also: “Why We See Spirits and Souls”, Graziano’s article at “Big Questions Online,” with lots of comments; author’s website

Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology, and the Sciences of Mind by Evan Thompson (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press), originally published in 2007, is now available in paperback.

(link for amazon.co.uk)

Product description from the publisher:

How is life related to the mind? The question has long confounded philosophers and scientists, and it is this so-called explanatory gap between biological life and consciousness that Evan Thompson explores in Mind in Life.

Thompson draws upon sources as diverse as molecular biology, evolutionary theory, artificial life, complex systems theory, neuroscience, psychology, Continental Phenomenology, and analytic philosophy to argue that mind and life are more continuous than has previously been accepted, and that current explanations do not adequately address the myriad facets of the biology and phenomenology of mind. Where there is life, Thompson argues, there is mind: life and mind share common principles of self-organization, and the self-organizing features of mind are an enriched version of the self-organizing features of life. Rather than trying to close the explanatory gap, Thompson marshals philosophical and scientific analyses to bring unprecedented insight to the nature of life and consciousness. This synthesis of phenomenology and biology helps make Mind in Life a vital and long-awaited addition to his landmark volume The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (coauthored with Eleanor Rosch and Francisco Varela).

Endlessly interesting and accessible, Mind in Life is a groundbreaking addition to the fields of the theory of the mind, life science, and phenomenology.

See also: review at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (“should be read by all those interested in exploring new approaches in cognitive science”), author’s website

An interesting-looking though pricey book from philosopher-physicist Mario Bunge — may be something to check for at your library or through interlibrary loan…

Matter and Mind: A Philosophical Inquiry (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science) (Springer, 2010)

(link for amazon.co.uk)

This book discusses two of the oldest and hardest problems in both science and philosophy: What is matter?, and What is mind? A reason for tackling both problems in a single book is that two of the most influential views in modern philosophy are that the universe is mental (idealism), and that the everything real is material (materialism). Most of the thinkers who espouse a materialist view of mind have obsolete ideas about matter, whereas those who claim that science supports idealism have not explained how the universe could have existed before humans emerged. Besides, both groups tend to ignore the other levels of existence—chemical, biological, social, and technological. If such levels and the concomitant emergence processes are ignored, the physicalism/spiritualism dilemma remains unsolved, whereas if they are included, the alleged mysteries are shown to be problems that science is treating successfully.

See also: Publisher’s webpage for the book

Just Another Ape? by Helene Guldberg (Imprint Academic, 2010)

(link for amazon.co.uk)

Product description from the publisher:

Today, the belief that human beings are special is distinctly out of fashion. Almost every day we are presented with new revelations about how animals are so much more like us than we ever imagined. The argument is at its most powerful when it comes to our closest living relatives – the great apes. This book argues that whatever first impressions might tell us, apes are really not ‘just like us’. Science has provided strong evidence that the boundaries between us and other species are vast. Unless we hold on to the belief in our exceptional abilities we will never be able to envision or build a better future – in which case, we might as well be monkeys.

See also: Author’s website

The Language of Pain: Finding Words, Compassion, and Relief by David Biro (W.W. Norton & Co, 2010)

(link for amazon.co.uk)

“…pain, and stories of pain, provide us with an extraordinary opportunity to witness the way language and meaning come into being.” p 139

To counter the isolation and silence that are often experienced by people in pain, physician Biro draws on literary accounts, memoirs and works of art to explore metaphor as a way of developing a language of pain. The three types of metaphor he discusses are agency (an external force causing pain), mirror (feelings projected into external objects) and X-ray (metaphors to picture interior of body).

Product description from the publisher:

David Biro breaks through the wall of silence in this impassioned, hopeful work. Pain regularly accompanies illness, as David Biro knows only too well. Faced with a bone marrow transplant, the young doctor was determined to study his pain but found himself unable to articulate its depths, even to his doctors and wife. He has now discovered a way to break through the silent wall of suffering—physical and psychological—and wants to share it with others. In his new book, the critically acclaimed author expertly weaves together compelling stories and artwork from patients along with insights from some of our greatest thinkers, writers, and artists.

In the tradition of Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor, Biro’s groundbreaking book is sure to transform our understanding of and ability to communicate pain. Language can alleviate the loneliness of pain and improve the chances that other people—family, friends, and doctors—empathize and respond most effectively. 10 illustrations

excerpt from p. 206-7

Pain is difficult to express because it isn’t necessarily connected to objects or referents in the shared, outer world. To overcome this obstacle, a person might imaginatively create a referent through metaphor. The material we have looked at during the course of the book, from the actual words of patients to works of fiction and art, offers three strategies for the creation of such referents. First, an agent in the outside world can be identified as acting against a person and causing pain. Next, the world can be remade to experience pain and empathize with a sufferer. And finally, the body can be opened up, enabling the sufferer to picture the internal source of pain.

Related works:

Biro cites Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World as a prime inspiration for his book.

Perceptions of Pain grew out of artist Deborah Padfield’s work with pain clinic patients. Some images from the book are reproduced in Chapter 9 of Biro’s book.

The wonderful Philosophy Bites podcast series has become a book, featuring 25 of the best interviews from over 100 available at philosophybites.com. The book is available now in the UK and will be in the US by the end of August. Apparently a sequel, Philosophy Bites Back, is already in the works. Tweet your answer to ‘What is philosophy?’ in 100 characters or less to enter the competition.

Philosophy Bites by David Edmonds & Nigel Warburton (Oxford University Press, 2010)

(link for amazon.co.uk)

Product description from the publisher:

What does Anthony Grayling think about atheism? Adrian Moore about infinity? For the last three years, some of the world’s leading philosophers have held forth on their favorite topics on the immensely popular website philosophybites.com. The site now features more than one hundred short conversations, has had some 7 million downloads to date, and is listened to all over the globe.

Philosophy Bites brings together the twenty-five best interviews from this hugely successful website. Leading philosophers–including Simon Blackburn, Alain de Botton, Will Kymlicka, Alexander Nehamas, and more than twenty others–discuss a wide range of philosophical issues in a surprisingly lively, informal, and personal way. For instance, Peter Singer, arguably the world’s leading animal rights philosopher, states that for people living in the western world, vegetarianism is the only moral choice, but he allows that this would not be the case for an Inuit who lives by killing fish–causing an animal to suffer must be balanced against the necessity to survive. Julian Savulescu talks about the “yuk factor”–the natural revulsion that keeps us from practicing incest or cannibalism–attacking its use as an argument against gay rights and abortion. Anthony Appiah discusses cosmopolitanism, the idea that emphasizes that people around the world have much in common, and that we have to be able to live with people despite our differences. And Stephen Law shows why it is unreasonable to believe in an all-powerful, all-good deity.

Time, infinity, evil, friendship, animals, wine, sport, tragedy–all of human life is here. And as these bite-sized interviews reveal, often the most brilliant philosophers are eager and able to convey their thoughts, simply and clearly, on the great ideas of philosophy.

See also: philosophy bites website, past interviews

Philosophy Bites & Waterstones twitter competition details

#philbitescomp on twitter

My definition of philosophy…