my mind on books

Our Knowledge of the Internal World (Lines of Thought) by Robert C. Stalnaker (Oxford University Press, September 15, 2008)

Product Description
On the traditional Cartesian picture, knowledge of one’s own internal world — of one’s current thoughts and feelings — is the unproblematic foundation for all knowledge. The philosophical problem is to explain how we can move beyond this knowledge, how we can form a conception of an objective world, and how we can know that the world answers to our conception of it. This book is in the anti-Cartesian tradition that seeks to reverse the order of explanation. Robert Stalnaker argues that we can understand our knowledge of our thoughts and feelings only by viewing ourselves from the outside, and by seeing our inner lives as features of the world as it is in itself. He uses the framework of possible worlds both to articulate a conception of the world as it is in itself, and to represent the relation between our objective knowledge and our knowledge of our place in the world. He explores an analogy between knowledge of one’s own phenomenal experience and self-locating knowledge — knowledge of who one is, and what time it is. He criticizes the philosopher’s use of the notion of acquaintance to characterize our intimate epistemic relation to the phenomenal character of our experience, and explores the tension between an anti-individualist conception of the contents of thought and the thesis that we have introspective access to that content. The conception of knowledge that emerges is a contextualist and anti-foundationalist one but, it is argued, a conception that is compatible with realism about both the external and internal worlds.

Dr. Peter Grossenbacher, from the Consciousness Laboratory at Naropa University, visits the Buddhist Geeks in the first of a two-part series of podcasts.

Dr. Grossenbacher is the editor of Finding Consciousness in the Brain: A Neurocognitive Approach (John Benjamins Co., 2001) (“Look Inside” the book available from Amazon).

Reviewed in The Telegraph: “The Pages is a nicely written, wonderfully entertaining novel with optional depths about the discoveries of an Australian who devotes his adult life to an introspective search for truth.”

The Pages is coming next month in the US (Sept. 28).

Among its many virtues, Jack Kornfield’s new book The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology has a “related readings” section (p. 402-407) that provides a good comprehensive bibliography of the intersection of Buddhism and psychotherapy. I hope the author doesn’t mind that I’ve copied it here with links to Amazon for further book information. (Probably the link doesn’t always match the edition given in the bibliography.)

Aronson, Harvey.  Buddhist Practice on Western Ground: Reconciling Eastern Ideals and Western Psychology Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2004.

Baer, Ruth A. Mindfulness-Based Treatment Approaches: Clinician’s Guide to Evidence Base and Applications Burlington, Mass.: Academic Press, 2006.

Begley, Sharon. Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves New York: Random House, 2007.

Bennett-Goleman, Tara. Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart New York: Harmony Books, 2001.

Bien, Thomas, and Bien, Beverly. Mindful Recovery: A Spiritual Path to Healing from Addiction New York: John Wiley, 2002.

Brach, Tara. Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. New York: Bantam Dell, 2003.

Brazier, David. Zen Therapy: Transcending the Sorrows of the Human Mind New York: John Wiley, 1995.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: HarperCollins, 1990/2002.

Davidson, Richard J. and Harrington, Anne. Visions of Compassion: Western Scientists and Tibetan Buddhists Examine Human Nature Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Epstein, Mark. Thoughts Without A Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective New York: Basic Books, 1995.

Epstein, Mark. Psychotherapy without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective New Haven: Yale University, 2007.

Fishman, Barbara Miller. Emotional Healing through Mindfulness Meditation: Stories and Meditations for Women Seeking Wholeness. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2002.

Germer, Christopher; Siegel, Ronald D.; Fulton, Paul R., eds. Mindfulness and Psychotherapy New York: Guilford Press, 2005.

Gilbert, Paul. Compassion: Conceptualisations, Research and Use in Psychotherapy. London: Routledge, 2005.

Glaser, Aura. A Call to Compassion: Bringing Buddhist Practices of the Heart into the Soul of Psychology Berwick, Maine: Nicolas-Hays, 2005.

Goleman, Daniel. Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama New York: Bantam Dell, 2003.

Goleman, Daniel. The Meditative Mind New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 1988.

Kabat-Zinn, Jon. Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness New York: Dell, 1990.

Kornfield, Jack. A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life New York: Bantam, 1993.

Kumar, Sameet M. Grieving Mindfully: A Compassionate And Spiritual Guide To Coping With Loss Oakland, Calif.: New Harbinger, 2005.

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Too bad we’ll have to wait until October to find out What Should We Do with Our Brain? by Catherine Malabou.

Product description:

Recent neuroscience, in replacing the old model of the brain as a single centralized locus of control, has emphasized a feature of the brain called plasticity, whereby our brain develops and changes throughout an entire lifetime. Through this plasticity, our brain exists as a historical product; it develops in interaction with the environment, through human experience. Hence there is a thin frontier between the organization of the nervous system and the political and social organization conditioning and conditioned by that experience. The new way of speaking about the brain is a mirror image of the capitalist world in which we now live. “Plasticity,” in connection with such an image, can have two meanings. In its neo-liberal meaning, “plasticity” amounts to “flexibility” — in economics and management theory, “flexible” has become a buzzword. The plastic brain might thus represent just another style of power which, although less centralized, is still a means of control. But in this book, Catherine Malabou proposes a more radical meaning for plasticity, one that not only adapts itself to existing circumstances, but forms a margin of freedom to intervene, to change the circumstances. Such an understanding of this concept opens up a transformative aspect of the neurosciences, opposed to their aspect of domination and control. In insisting on this proximity between the neurosciences and the social sciences, Malabou applies to the brain Marx’s well-known phrase about history: people make their own brain, but they do not know it. This book is a call to such knowledge.