my mind on books

Benoit Hardy-Vallée of the University of Toronto Department of Philosophy has posted the first chapter of a free e-book, ‘The Philosophy of Social Cognition.’ The chapter topic is “The Other Minds.”

Some additions to the list in the sidebar – books on the self published 2007-2008.

2008
Andre Masson and the Surrealist Self by Clark V Poling (New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, 2008) forthcoming – April 2008

Belief about the Self: A Defense of the Property Theory of Content by Neil Feit (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) forthcoming – June 2008

Crossing Horizons: World, Self, and Language in Indian and Western Thought by Shlomo Biderman (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008) available

Cult of the Will: Nervousness and the Forging of a Modern Self in Germany, 1890-1914 by Michael A. Cowan (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008) forthcoming – June 2008

The Phenomenal Self by Barry Dainton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) forthcoming – May 2008

2007

Concepts of the Self (Key Concepts) 2nd ed. by Anthony Elliott (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007)

Feeling, Being and the Sense of Self: A New Perspective on Identity, Affect and Narcissistic Disorders by Marcus West (London: Karnac, 2007)

Narrative and Understanding Persons (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement) ed. by Daniel D. Hutto (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007)

Self and Social Change by Matthew Adams (Los Angeles; London: Sage, 2007)

Self-Knowing Agents by Lucy O’Brien (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007)

Subjectivity: Ethnographic Investigations (Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity) ed. by João Gulherme Biehl, Byron Good, Arthur Kleinman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)

By a roundabout way I came across this book: Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality by William C. Wimsatt (Harvard U Press, 2007) – reviewed at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews and at Metapsychology

Harvard University Press page & excerpt

In an interview Wimsatt says:

“Complex systems are messy …And human beings make errors trying to understand them. That’s OK. The goal should not be to eliminate errors, but to recognize and metabolize them.”

That is because, Wimsatt explains, “humans and organisms are engineered to be error-tolerant but still reliable. We learn, and re-engineer to do better. Evolved systems are complex and chaotic, but nonetheless ordered and robust.”

Maybe these two books go together! (although we had ‘The Answer ‘ before ‘The Riddle’ was posed…)

The Riddle: Where Ideas Come From and How to Have Better Ones by Andrew Razeghi, recently published by Jossey-Bass.

From the book description:

Science has shown that it’s possible to create conditions under which the mind is more prepared to have insights, or “a-ha! moments.” In this fascinating book, Andrew Razeghi examines the precursors to creative insight and offers clear-cut methods for making “Eureka moments” routine practice rather than lucky accidents. Combining the latest scientific research, interviews with current innovators, and studies of history’s most creative minds, he dissects the creative process and presents a practical approach for inspiring innovation.

The Answer: Making Sense of Life, One Question at a Time by Jennifer Krause

By examining seven thought-provoking questions, “The Answer” offers an unexpected approach to discovering the truths, wisdom, and insights that will transform our lives in sustainable ways. By trusting questions as a driving, natural, and nourishing force in life, we can begin to trust ourselves to find the answers that are right for us.

Jeff Warren’s The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness is an entertaining tour with Warren as an enthusiastic and witty guide, who earnestly tries to figure it all out. Sometimes I laughed out loud, other times I tried to roll my eyes to the back of my head (an indicator of hypnotic capacity), and I wanted to check out many of the books and authors Warren consults along the way.

So following is a list of “further reading” for the consciousness tourist…

The Hypnogogic

Hypnagogia: The Unique State of Consciousness Between Wakefulness and Sleep by Andreas Mavromatis
The Mind At Night: The New Science Of How And Why We Dream by Andrea Rock

The Slow Wave

The Brain and the Inner World: An Introduction to the Neuroscience of Subjective Experience by Mark Solms and Oliver Turnbull

The Watch

At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch

The REM Dream

Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep by J. Allan Hobson
(more…)