my mind on books

Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience by Stephen S. Hall (Knopf, 2010)

(link for UK)

Product description from the publisher:

A compelling investigation into one of our most coveted and cherished ideals, and the efforts of modern science to penetrate the mysterious nature of this timeless virtue.

We all recognize wisdom, but defining it is more elusive. In this fascinating journey from philosophy to science, Stephen S. Hall gives us a dramatic history of wisdom, from its sudden emergence in four different locations (Greece, China, Israel, and India) in the fifth century B.C. to its modern manifestations in education, politics, and the workplace. We learn how wisdom became the provenance of philosophy and religion through its embodiment in individuals such as Buddha, Confucius, and Jesus; how it has consistently been a catalyst for social change; and how revelatory work in the last fifty years by psychologists, economists, and neuroscientists has begun to shed light on the biology of cognitive traits long associated with wisdom—and, in doing so, begun to suggest how we might cultivate it.

Hall explores the neural mechanisms for wise decision making; the conflict between the emotional and cognitive parts of the brain; the development of compassion, humility, and empathy; the effect of adversity and the impact of early-life stress on the development of wisdom; and how we can learn to optimize our future choices and future selves.

Hall’s bracing exploration of the science of wisdom allows us to see this ancient virtue with fresh eyes, yet also makes clear that despite modern science’s most powerful efforts, wisdom continues to elude easy understanding.

See also: “Ten Fascinating Facts About Wisdom” & “Eight Neural Pillars of Wisdom” (at publisher’s website)

Author’s website

[added 4/24/10: authors@google video:]

The Brain and the Meaning of Life by Paul Thagard (Princeton University Press, 2010).

(link for UK)

Product description from the publisher:

Why is life worth living? What makes actions right or wrong? What is reality and how do we know it? The Brain and the Meaning of Life draws on research in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience to answer some of the most pressing questions about life’s nature and value. Paul Thagard argues that evidence requires the abandonment of many traditional ideas about the soul, free will, and immortality, and shows how brain science matters for fundamental issues about reality, morality, and the meaning of life. The ongoing Brain Revolution reveals how love, work, and play provide good reasons for living.

Defending the superiority of evidence-based reasoning over religious faith and philosophical thought experiments, Thagard argues that minds are brains and that reality is what science can discover. Brains come to know reality through a combination of perception and reasoning. Just as important, our brains evaluate aspects of reality through emotions that can produce both good and bad decisions. Our cognitive and emotional abilities allow us to understand reality, decide effectively, act morally, and pursue the vital needs of love, work, and play. Wisdom consists of knowing what matters, why it matters, and how to achieve it.

The Brain and the Meaning of Life shows how brain science helps to answer questions about the nature of mind and reality, while alleviating anxiety about the difficulty of life in a vast universe. The book integrates decades of multidisciplinary research, but its clear explanations and humor make it accessible to the general reader.

See also: Website for the book, including a sample chapter and links to cited websites.

New from MIT Press— The Anatomy of Bias: How Neural Circuits Weigh the Options by Jan Lauwereyns.

(link for UK)

Product description from the publisher:

I will recklessly endeavor to scavenge materials from these various fields with the single aim of producing a coherent, but open-minded account of attention, or bias versus sensitivity, or how the activities of neurons allow us to decide one way or another that, with a faint echo of Hamlet in the background, something appears to be or not to be.

—from The Anatomy of Bias

In this engaging, even lyrical, book, Jan Lauwereyns examines the neural underpinnings of decision-making, using “bias” as his core concept rather than the more common but noncommittal terms “selection” and “attention.” Lauwereyns offers an integrative, interdisciplinary account of the structure and function of bias, which he defines as a basic brain mechanism that attaches different weights to different information sources, prioritizing some cognitive representations at the expense of others.

Lauwereyns introduces the concepts of bias and sensitivity based on notions from Bayesian probability, which he translates into easily recognizable neural signatures, introduced by concrete examples from the experimental literature. He examines, among other topics, positive and negative motivations for giving priority to different sensory inputs, and looks for the neural underpinnings of racism, sexism, and other forms of “familiarity bias.”

Lauwereyns—a poet and essayist as well as a scientist—connects findings and ideas in neuroscience to analogous concepts in such diverse fields as post-Lacanian psychoanalysis, literary theory, philosophy of mind, evolutionary psychology, and experimental economics. With The Anatomy of Bias, he gives readers that rarity in today’s world of proliferating and ever more narrowly focused technical research papers: a work of sustained, rational thinking, elegantly expressed.

The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist (Yale University Press, 2009)
(link for UK)

Product description from the publisher:

Why is the brain divided? The difference between right and left hemispheres has been puzzled over for centuries. In a book of unprecedented scope, Iain McGilchrist draws on a vast body of recent brain research, illustrated with case histories, to reveal that the difference is profound—not just this or that function, but two whole, coherent, but incompatible ways of experiencing the world. The left hemisphere is detail oriented, prefers mechanisms to living things, and is inclined to self-interest, where the right hemisphere has greater breadth, flexibility, and generosity. This division helps explain the origins of music and language, and casts new light on the history of philosophy, as well as on some mental illnesses.

In the second part of the book, McGilchrist takes the reader on a journey through the history of Western culture, illustrating the tension between these two worlds as revealed in the thought and belief of thinkers and artists, from Aeschylus to Magritte. He argues that, despite its inferior grasp of reality, the left hemisphere is increasingly taking precedence in the modern world, with potentially disastrous consequences. This is truly a tour de force that should excite interest in a wide readership.

See also: Author’s website, including a pdf of the introduction

Based on a search of Worldcat, here are some of the books on cognitive science, cognitive psychology, or cognition coming in 2010, with expected month of publication in the US & links to Amazon.com & Amazon.co.uk:

The Architect’s Brain: Neuroscience, Creativity, and Architecture by Harry Francis Mallgrave (Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.; Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). [published Dec 2009 but copyright 2010] (link for UK)

The Brain and the Meaning of Life by Paul Thagard (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010). [March 2010] (link for UK)

Cognition and Conditionals: Probability and Logic in Human Thinking by M Oaksford; Nick Chater (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). [April 2010] (link for UK)

Cognitive Pragmatics: The Mental Processes of Communication by Bruno G Bara (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2010). [June 2010] (link for UK)

Cognitive Psychology Perspectives (Psychology Research Progress) by Giacomo Salvati; Valeria Rabuano (Hauppauge, N.Y.: Nova Science ; Lancaster: Gazelle [distributor], 2010). [April 2010] (link for UK)

The Extended Mind (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology) ed. by Richard Menary (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2010). [June 2010] (link for UK)

Gaming and Cognition: Theories and Practice from the Learning Sciences by Richard Van Eck (Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, 2010). [March 2010] (link for UK)

How the Mind Uses the Brain: To Move the Body and Image the Universe by Ralph D Ellis; Natika Newton (Chicago, Ill.: Open Court, 2010). [June 2010] (link for UK)

Introduction to Cognitive Cultural Studies ed. by Lisa Zunshine (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010). [June 2010] (link for UK)

The Making of Human Concepts ed. by Denis Mareschal; Paul C Quinn; S E G Lea (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). [May 2010] (link for UK)

Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion (The Terry Lectures Series) by Barbara Herrnstein Smith (New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 2010). [Jan 2010 – in print]

The Neurocognition of Dance: Mind, Movement and Motor Skills ed. by Bettina Bläsing; Martin Puttke; Thomas Schack (Hove: Psychology, 2010). [April 2010] (link for UK)

Psychology Around Us by Ronald J Comer; Elizabeth Gould (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley; Chichester: John Wiley [distributor], 2010). [Jan. 2010 – textbook] (link for UK)

Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture: Image and Word in the Mind of Narrative (Religion, Cognition, and Culture) ed. by Armin W Geertz; Jeppe Sinding Jensen (London; Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub. Ltd., 2010). [Aug. 2010] (link for UK)

The Science of Social Vision ed. by Reginald B Adams; et al (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). [March 2010]

Structured Worlds: The Archaeology of Hunter-Gatherer Thought and Action (Approaches to Anthropological Archaeology) by Aubrey Cannon (Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub., 2010). [March 2010] (link for UK)

Thinking Visually by Stephen K Reed (New York: Psychology Press, 2010). [Jan. 2010] (link for UK)

Toward a Cognitive Theory of Narrative Acts ed. by Frederick Luis Aldama (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010). [June 2010] (link for UK)

Toward an Anthropology of the Will ed. by Keith M Murphy; C Jason Throop (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2010). [Feb. 2010] (link for UK)

Trust Theory: A Socio-Cognitive and Computational Model (Wiley Series in Agent Technology) by Cristiano Castelfranchi; Rino Falcone
(Chichester : John Wiley & Sons, 2010). [May 2010] (link for UK)