March 22, 2014
Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science by Mark Johnson (University of Chicago Press, 2014)
(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk), (UK kindle ed.)
Book description from the publisher:
What is the difference between right and wrong? This is no easy question to answer, yet we constantly try to make it so, frequently appealing to some hidden cache of cut-and-dried absolutes, whether drawn from God, universal reason, or societal authority. Combining cognitive science with a pragmatist philosophical framework in Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science, Mark Johnson argues that appealing solely to absolute principles and values is not only scientifically unsound but even morally suspect. He shows that the standards for the kinds of people we should be and how we should treat one another—which we often think of as universal—are in fact frequently subject to change. And we should be okay with that. Taking context into consideration, he offers a remarkably nuanced, naturalistic view of ethics that sees us creatively adapt our standards according to given needs, emerging problems, and social interactions.
Ethical naturalism is not just a revamped form of relativism. Indeed, Johnson attempts to overcome the absolutist-versus-relativist impasse that has been one of the most intractable problems in the history of philosophy. He does so through a careful and inclusive look at the many ways we reason about right and wrong. Much of our moral thought, he shows, is automatic and intuitive, gut feelings that we follow up and attempt to justify with rational analysis and argument. However, good moral deliberation is not limited merely to intuitive judgments supported after the fact by reasoning. Johnson points out a crucial third element: we imagine how our decisions will play out, how we or the world would change with each action we might take. Plumbing this imaginative dimension of moral reasoning, he provides a psychologically sophisticated view of moral problem solving, one perfectly suited for the embodied, culturally embedded, and ever-developing human creatures that we are.
Google Books preview:
See also: Author’s webpage
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- cognitive science,new books
March 20, 2014
Hacking Happiness: Why Your Personal Data Counts and How Tracking it Can Change the World by John Havens (Tarcher, 2014)
(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk), (UK kindle ed.)
Book description from the publisher:
In Hacking Happiness, futurist and contributing Mashable writer John C. Havens introduces you to your “quantified self”—your digital identity represented by gigabytes of data produced from tracking your activities on your smartphone and computer. Harvested by megacorporations such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, Havens argues that companies gather this data because of its immense economic value, encouraging a culture of “sharing” as they hoard the information based on our lives for private monetary gain.
But there’s an alternative to this digital dystopia. Emerging technologies will help us reclaim this valuable data for ourselves, so we can directly profit from the insights linked to our quantified selves. At the same time, sensors in smartphones and wearable devices will help us track our emotions to improve our well-being based on the science of positive psychology. Havens proposes that these trends will lead to new economic policies that redefine the meaning of “wealth,” allowing governments to create policy focused on purpose rather than productivity.
An issues book highlighting the benefits of an examined life in the digital world, this timely work takes the trepidation out of the technological renaissance and illustrates how the fruits of the Information Age can improve our lives for a happier humanity.
See also: Excerpt (Introduction, pdf), Author’s website
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- happiness
March 18, 2014
The Secret Life of Sleep by Kat Duff (Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2014)
(kindle ed.), (amazon.co.uk)
Book description from the publisher:
It has become increasingly clear that our sleep shapes who we are as much as, if not more than, we shape it.
While most sleep research hasn’t ventured far beyond research labs and treatment clinics, The Secret Life of Sleep taps into the enormous reservoir of human experiences to illuminate the complexities of a world where sleep has become a dwindling resource.
With a sense of infectious curiosity, award winning author Kat Duff mixes cutting-edge research with insightful narratives, surprising insights, and timely questions to help us better understand what we’re losing before it’s too late.
The Secret Life of Sleep tackles the full breadth of what sleep means to people the world over. Embark on an exploration of what lies behind and beyond our eyelids when we surrender to the secret life of sleep.
Google Books preview:
See also: Book website
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- consciousness,new books,psychology
March 17, 2014
Concepts: A Critical Approach by Andy Blunden (Haymarket Books, 2014)
(amazon.co.uk)
Book description from the publisher:
Andy Blunden presents an interdisciplinary review of theories of concepts of interest to cognitive psychology, analytic philosophy, linguistics, and the history of science. Problems within these disciplines establishing reductive theories of the conceptual have led some to abandon concepts altogether in favor of interactionist or narrowly pragmatic approaches.
Blunden responds with an account of the development of the theory of concepts from Descartes through Hegel—with special focus on the latter’s critical appropriation by early critical social science—culminating in the cultural psychology of Lev Vygotsky. He then proposes an approach to concepts which draws on activity theory, according to which concepts are equally subjective and objective: both units of consciousness and of the cultural formation of which one’s consciousness is part. This continues the author’s earlier work in An Interdisciplinary Theory of Activity (Haymarket, 2011).
Google Books preview (of hardcover edition):
See also: Author’s homepage
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- culture,new books,psychology
