Written on August 15, 2008
At Language Log: “One question, two answers, three interpretations,” in which Mark Liberman looks at Richard E. Nisbett’s 2003 The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently and Why; James R. Flynn’s 2007 What is Intelligence? Beyond the Flynn Effect; and Alexander Luria’s 1976 Cognitive Development: Its Cultural and Social Foundations and their differing interpretations of classification based on “concrete functional relationships” versus “abstract taxonomic categories.” (as in this example quoted from Luria):
Camels and Germany (p. 112):
Q: There are no camels in Germany; the city of B is in Germany; are there camels there or not?
A: I don’t know, I have never seen German villages. If is a large city, there should be camels there.
Q: But what if there aren’t any in all of Germany?
A: If B is a village, there is probably no room for camels.
Via Mind Hacks, Patrick Lee Miller’s post “Psychoanalysis as spirituality” at The Immanent Frame is a response to A Secular Age by Charles Taylor (author of Sources of the Self)
…”possibly the first analysis ever of harrumphing,” a memorable distinction for Raymond Tallis’s Kingdom of Infinite Space: A Fantastical Journey Around Your Head as described in the National Post review by Robert Fulford
“Writers Read: Mark Kingwell” (Kingwell’s recent book is Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City)
Metapsychology has lots of new reviews every week; among this week’s batch is a review of Consciousness: From Perception to Reflection in the History of Philosophy.
