books on the mind, consciousness, cognitive science…
May 26, 2013
Reminder – “Big Deal” on kindle books ends tomorrow (5/27) amazon.com/gp/feature.htm… via @amazon
— Debbie A Foster (@mymindonbooks) May 27, 2013
(Note: “Individual books may have additional territory restrictions, and not all deals are available in all territories. Amazon may modify the selection of books offered at any time.”)
May 25, 2013
Rethinking Introspection: A Pluralist Approach to the First-Person Perspective (New Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science) by Jesse Butler (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
We seem to have private privileged access to our own minds through introspection, but what exactly does this involve? Do we somehow literally perceive our own minds, as the common idea of a ‘mind’s eye’ suggests, or are there other processes at work in our ability to know our own minds? Rethinking Introspection offers a new pluralist framework for understanding the nature, scope, and limits of introspection. The book argues that, contrary to common misconceptions, introspection does not consist of a single mechanism but rather a diverse range of mental states and cognitive processes with a broad spectrum of epistemic properties. Building upon this revised conception of introspection, the book illustrates and analyzes the variety of ways in which we introspectively grasp the contents of our own minds, from the immediate phenomenal knowledge generated by conscious experience to the self-deceptive possibilities enabled by certain kinds of inner speech.
$2.99 kindle short on Amazon: ‘Investigating Wittgenstein: How to Believe’ (Guardian Short) by Giles Fraser amazon.com/gp/product/B00…
— Debbie A Foster (@mymindonbooks) May 25, 2013
The How to Believe series of Guardian Shorts includes entries on Kierkegaard, Carl Jung, Montaigne and more!
How to Believe series at Amazon.co.uk
See also: “How to Believe” series at the Guardian
May 23, 2013
The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will by Heidi M. Ravven (New Press, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
Why be ethical? For freedom’s sake; for joy, for pleasure, for a sense of living on in the universe of which one is a tiny, local expression; and for an enhanced sense of agency in a dangerous, unpredictable, and ephemeral existence… Opening oneself to being more broadly acted upon by the world in order to discover oneself within it — surely as a basis for acting more broadly within it — is a paradoxical route to freedom.
—FROM THE SELF BEYOND ITSELFFew concepts are more unshakable in Western culture than free will, the idea that people are fundamentally free to make good or bad decisions. Scholar Heidi M. Ravven throws a wrench into this conventional view, calling free will a myth that reflects the still-powerful influence of Christian theology on our popular thinking.
The Self Beyond Itself offers a riveting and accessible review of modern neuro-scientific research into the brain’s capacity for decision-making—from mirror neurons and self-mapping to surprising new understandings of the dynamics of group psychology. Ultimately, this research points to the profound, virtually inescapable social influences on moral choices. Ravven shows that it is possible to build a theory of ethics that doesn’t rely on free will yet still holds both individuals and groups responsible for the decisions that help create a good society. Drawing especially on the work of Spinoza, she introduces readers to a rich philosophical tradition that finds uncanny confirmation in modern neuroscience.
Highly readable and wide-ranging, The Self Beyond Itself injects the full weight of modern science into our current, stale discourse on right and wrong.
See also: “The Self Beyond Itself: Further Reflection on Spinoza’s Systems Theory of Ethics” (6-page pdf)
May 20, 2013
Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld (Basic Books, 2013)
Book description from the publisher:
What can’t neuroscience tell us about ourselves? Since fMRI—functional magnetic resonance imaging—was introduced in the early 1990s, brain scans have been used to help politicians understand and manipulate voters, determine guilt in court cases, and make sense of everything from musical aptitude to romantic love. But although brain scans and other neurotechnologies have provided groundbreaking insights into the workings of the human brain, the increasingly fashionable idea that they are the most important means of answering the enduring mysteries of psychology is misguided—and potentially dangerous.
In Brainwashed, psychiatrist and AEI scholar Sally Satel and psychologist Scott O. Lilienfeld reveal how many of the real-world applications of human neuroscience gloss over its limitations and intricacies, at times obscuring—rather than clarifying—the myriad factors that shape our behavior and identities. Brain scans, Satel and Lilienfeld show, are useful but often ambiguous representations of a highly complex system. Each region of the brain participates in a host of experiences and interacts with other regions, so seeing one area light up on an fMRI in response to a stimulus doesn’t automatically indicate a particular sensation or capture the higher cognitive functions that come from those interactions. The narrow focus on the brain’s physical processes also assumes that our subjective experiences can be explained away by biology alone. As Satel and Lilienfeld explain, this “neurocentric” view of the mind risks undermining our most deeply held ideas about selfhood, free will, and personal responsibility, putting us at risk of making harmful mistakes, whether in the courtroom, interrogation room, or addiction treatment clinic.
A provocative account of our obsession with neuroscience, Brainwashed brilliantly illuminates what contemporary neuroscience and brain imaging can and cannot tell us about ourselves, providing a much-needed reminder about the many factors that make us who we are.
