my mind on books

The latest Encephalon blog carnival includes a review from The Thinking Meat Project of two books on neuroplasticity: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley and The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge. Also at the Thinking Meat Project is a reading list covering a good selection of mind-related books.

Immortality Defended by John Leslie is discussed in the article “Eternity for Atheists” in the New York Times 7/29/07:

Each of us, Leslie submits, is immortal because our life patterns are but an aspect of an “existentially unified” cosmos that will persist after our death. Both Tipler and Leslie are, in different ways, heirs to the view of William James. The mind or “soul,” as they see it, consists of information, not matter. And one of the deepest principles of quantum theory, called “unitarity,” forbids the disappearance of information.

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One I missed earlier: Why Think? The Evolution of the Rational Mind by Ronald de Sousa (Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007)

Here are books on evolutionary psychology published in 2007 or coming soon, the beginning of a cumulative list to be placed in the sidebar:

The Descent of Madness: Evolutionary Origins of Psychosis and the Social Brain by Jonathan Burns (London ; New York : Routledge, 2007).
Educating the Evolved Mind: Conceptual Foundations for an Evolutionary Educational Psychology (PB) (Psychological Perspectives on Contemporary Educational Issues) ed. by Jerry S Carlson; Joel R Levin (Charlotte, N.C. : Information Age Pub., 2007)
Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered ed. by Bruce H Weber; David J Depew (Cambridge, Mass. ; London : MIT, 2007)
The Evolution of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Social Cognition (Sydney Symposium in Social Psychology) ed. by Joseph P Forgas; Martie Gail Haselton; William von Hippel (New York : Psychology Press, 2007).
The Evolution of Mind: Fundamental Questions and Controversies ed. by Steven W Gangestad; Jeffry A Simpson (New York : Guilford Press, 2007).
Evolutionary and Neurocognitive Approaches to Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts (Foundations and Frontiers of Aesthetics), ed. by Colin Martindale; Paul Locher; V M Petrov (Amityville, N.Y. : Baywood Pub., 2007)
(more…)

Monsters and Critics has posted a review of Steven Pinker’s forthcoming book ‘The Stuff of Thought.‘ which is due out in Sept 07.

Also Grumpy Old Bookman is discussing Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ‘The Black Swan.’