Download or read book The Mind s Past written by Michael S. Gazzaniga and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1998-05-07 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does the human brain insist on interpreting the world and constructing a narrative? In this ground-breaking work, Michael S. Gazzaniga, one of the world's foremost cognitive neuroscientists, shows how our mind and brain accomplish the amazing feat of constructing our past—a process clearly fraught with errors of perception, memory, and judgment. By showing that the specific systems built into our brain do their work automatically and largely outside of our conscious awareness, Gazzaniga calls into question our everyday notions of self and reality. The implications of his ideas reach deeply into the nature of perception and memory, the profundity of human instinct, and the ways we construct who we are and how we fit into the world around us. Over the past thirty years, the mind sciences have developed a picture not only of how our brains are built but also of what they were built to do. The emerging picture is wonderfully clear and pointed, underlining William James's notion that humans have far more instincts than other animals. Every baby is born with circuits that compute information enabling it to function in the physical world. Even what helps us to establish our understanding of social relations may have grown out of perceptual laws delivered to an infant's brain. Indeed, the ability to transmit culture—an act that is only part of the human repertoire—may stem from our many automatic and unique perceptual-motor processes that give rise to mental capacities such as belief and culture. Gazzaniga explains how the mind interprets data the brain has already processed, making "us" the last to know. He shows how what "we" see is frequently an illusion and not at all what our brain is perceiving. False memories become a part of our experience; autobiography is fiction. In exploring how the brain enables the mind, Gazzaniga points us toward one of the greatest mysteries of human evolution: how we become who we are.
Download or read book The Mind s Past written by Michael S. Gazzaniga and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Racing to Win written by Joe Gibbs and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2009-04-23 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joe Gibbs is the only coach in history who has won prestigious championships in two world-class sports: NFL's Super Bowl and NASCAR's Winston Cup. A proven winner in motivating himself and others to succeed, the former Washington Redskins coach and current NASCAR team owner reveals the keys to success in Racing to Win. Through fascinating inside stories about stock car racing and football, Gibbs candidly admits his own mistakes and shares the life lessons he's learned. Football and racing fans, as well as anyone interested in balancing work and family responsibilities, will find Racing to Win both a page-turner and a valuable resource filled with practical truths.Victory Is Within Your Reach Strap yourself in for the ride of your life—and start racing to win. Now the only man ever to lead teams to championships in two major sports shares with you his powerful high-octane formula for success. Calling his plays by the bestselling Book of all time, Joe Gibbs tells you what made him a believer—in God, in his team members, and in himself. His incredible story of triumph and defeat in the high-stakes world of professional sports and in life will make you a believer, too.
Download or read book Searching For Memory written by Daniel L Schacter and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-08-04 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memory. There may be nothing more important to human beings than our ability to enshrine experience and recall it. While philosophers and poets have elevated memory to an almost mystical level, psychologists have struggled to demystify it. Now, according to Daniel Schacter, one of the most distinguished memory researchers, the mysteries of memory are finally yielding to dramatic, even revolutionary, scientific breakthroughs. Schacter explains how and why it may change our understanding of everything from false memory to Alzheimer's disease, from recovered memory to amnesia with fascinating firsthand accounts of patients with striking -- and sometimes bizarre -- amnesias resulting from brain injury or psychological trauma.
Download or read book History of the Concept of Mind written by PaulS. Macdonald and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-29 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 20th century theorists of mind were almost exclusively concerned with various versions of the materialist thesis, but prior to current debates accounts of soul and mind reveal an extraordinary richness and complexity ?which bear careful and impartial investigation. This book is the first single-authored, comprehensive work to examine the historical, linguistic and conceptual issues involved in exploring the basic features of the human mind - from its most remote origins to the beginning of the modern period. MacDonald traces the development of an armature of psychical concepts from the Old Testament and Homer's works to the 18th century advocacy of an empirical science of the mind. Along the way, detailed attention is paid to the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicurus, before turning to look at the New Testament, Neoplatonism, Augustine, Medieval Islam, Aquinas and Dante. Treatment of Renaissance theories is followed by an unusual (perhaps unique) chapter on the words "soul" and "mind" in English literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare; the story then rejoins the mainstream with analyses of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Chapter-focused bibliographies.
Download or read book The Book of Minds written by Philip Ball and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-06-28 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular science writer Philip Ball explores a range of sciences to map our answers to a huge, philosophically rich question: How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human? Sciences from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience, are seeking to understand minds in their own distinct disciplinary realms. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where to find them—including in plants, aliens, and God—Philip Ball pulls the pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, by locating them in what he calls the “space of possible minds.” By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions: What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will? Informed by conversations with leading researchers, Ball’s brilliant survey of current views about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.
Download or read book A History of the Mind written by Nicholas Humphrey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1992 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Takes the reader to the very edges of current knowledge and back to the beginning of time, before "mind" existed; the author constructs a history of consciousness. Nicholas Humphrey's previous books include "Four Minutes to Midnight", "Consciousness Regained" and "The Inner Eye".
Download or read book Malady of the Mind written by Jeffrey A. Lieberman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-02-21 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The most important book about schizophrenia in decades, and perhaps ever…a total game-changer.” —Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind A comprehensive, deeply researched, and highly readable portrait of schizophrenia—its history, its various manifestations, and how today’s treatments have promising and often lifesaving potential. This “incredibly captivating” (Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies) portrait of schizophrenia, the most malignant and mysterious mental illness, by renowned psychiatrist Jeffrey Lieberman, interweaves cultural and scientific history with dramatic patient profiles and clinical experiences to impart a revolutionary message of hope. For the first time in history, we can effectively treat schizophrenia, limiting its disabling effects—and we’re on the verge of being able to prevent the disease’s onset entirely. Drawing on his four-decade career, Dr. Jeffrey Lieberman expertly illuminates the past, present, and future of this historically dreaded and devastating illness. Interweaving history, science, and policy with personal anecdotes and clinical cases, Malady of the Mind is a rich, illuminating experience written in accessible, fluid prose. From Dr. Lieberman’s vantage point at the pinnacle of academic psychiatry, informed by extensive research experience and clinical care of thousands of patients, he explains how the complexity of the brain, the checkered history of psychiatric medicine, and centuries of stigma combined with misguided legislation and health care policies have impeded scientific advances and clinical progress. Despite this, there is reason for optimism: by offering evidence-based treatments that combine medication with psychosocial services and principles learned from the recovery movement, doctors can now effectively treat schizophrenia by diagnosing patients at a very early stage, achieving a mutually respectful therapeutic alliance, and preventing relapse, thus limiting the progression of the illness. Even more promising, decades of work on diagnosis, detection, and early intervention have pushed scientific progress to the cusp of prevention—meaning that in the near future, doctors may be able to prevent the onset of this disorder. A must-read for those interested in medical history, psychology, and those whose lives have been affected by schizophrenia, this “penetrating, important” (Andrew Solomon, author of Noonday Demon) work offers a comprehensive scientific portrait, crucial insights, sound advice for families and friends, and most importantly, hope for those sufferers now and future generations.
Download or read book The Consciousness Instinct written by Michael S. Gazzaniga and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The father of cognitive neuroscience” illuminates the past, present, and future of the mind-brain problem How do neurons turn into minds? How does physical “stuff”—atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells—create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness. The idea of the brain as a machine, first proposed centuries ago, has led to assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain that dog scientists and philosophers to this day. Gazzaniga asserts that this model has it backward—brains make machines, but they cannot be reduced to one. New research suggests the brain is actually a confederation of independent modules working together. Understanding how consciousness could emanate from such an organization will help define the future of brain science and artificial intelligence, and close the gap between brain and mind. Captivating and accessible, with insights drawn from a lifetime at the forefront of the field, The Consciousness Instinct sets the course for the neuroscience of tomorrow.
Download or read book How the Mind Works written by Steven Pinker and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 673 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explains what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and ponder the mysteries of life.
Download or read book The Coddling of the American Mind written by Greg Lukianoff and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Something is going wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and afraid to speak honestly. How did this happen? First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths are incompatible with basic psychological principles, as well as ancient wisdom from many cultures. They interfere with healthy development. Anyone who embraces these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—is less likely to become an autonomous adult able to navigate the bumpy road of life. Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to produce these untruths. They situate the conflicts on campus in the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization, including a rise in hate crimes and off-campus provocation. They explore changes in childhood including the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. This is a book for anyone who is confused by what is happening on college campuses today, or has children, or is concerned about the growing inability of Americans to live, work, and cooperate across party lines.
Download or read book The Minds of Gods written by Benjamin Grant Purzycki and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-09 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are humans obsessed with divine minds? What do gods know and what do they care about? What happens to us and our relationships when gods are involved? Drawing from neuroscience, evolutionary, cultural, and applied anthropology, social psychology, religious studies, philosophy, technology, and cognitive and political sciences, The Minds of Gods probes these questions from a multitude of naturalistic perspectives. Each chapter offers brief intellectual histories of their topics, summarizes current cutting-edge questions in the field, and points to areas in need of attention from future researchers. Through an innovative theoretical framework that combines evolutionary and cognitive approaches to religion, this book brings together otherwise disparate literatures to focus on a topic that has comprised a lasting, central obsession of our species.
Download or read book The Nation written by and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 1110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mind written by and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 622 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A quarterly review of philosophy.
Download or read book The Mind of a Mnemonist written by Aleksandr Romanovich Lurii͡a and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A welcome re-issue of an English translation of Alexander Luria's famous case-history of hypermnestic man. The study remains the classic paradigm of what Luria called 'romantic science,' a genre characterized by individual portraiture based on an assessment of operative psychological processes. The opening section analyses in some detail the subject's extraordinary capacity for recall and demonstrates the association between the persistence of iconic memory and a highly developed synaesthesia. The remainder of the book deals with the subject's construction of the world, his mental strengths and weaknesses, his control of behaviour and his personality. The result is a contribution to literature as well as to science. (Psychological Medicine ).
Download or read book Emerson written by Robert D. Richardson Jr. and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2015-04-22 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recipient of the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord. Drawing on a vast amount of new material, including correspondence among the Emerson brothers, Richardson gives us a rewarding intellectual biography that is also a portrait of the whole man. These pages present a young suitor, a grief-stricken widower, an affectionate father, and a man with an abiding genius for friendship. The great spokesman for individualism and self-reliance turns out to have been a good neighbor, an activist citizen, a loyal brother. Here is an Emerson who knew how to laugh, who was self-doubting as well as self-reliant, and who became the greatest intellectual adventurer of his age. Richardson has, as much as possible, let Emerson speak for himself through his published works, his many journals and notebooks, his letters, his reported conversations. This is not merely a study of Emerson's writing and his influence on others; it is Emerson's life as he experienced it. We see the failed minister, the struggling writer, the political reformer, the poetic liberator. The Emerson of this book not only influenced Thoreau, Fuller, Whitman, Dickinson, and Frost, he also inspired Nietzsche, William James, Baudelaire, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Jorge Luis Borges. Emerson's timeliness is persistent and striking: his insistence that literature and science are not separate cultures, his emphasis on the worth of every individual, his respect for nature. Richardson gives careful attention to the enormous range of Emerson's readings—from Persian poets to George Sand—and to his many friendships and personal encounters—from Mary Moody Emerson to the Cherokee chiefs in Boston—evoking both the man and the times in which he lived. Throughout this book, Emerson's unquenchable vitality reaches across the decades, and his hold on us endures.
Download or read book Marking the Mind written by Kurt Danziger and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An elegantly written, challenging exposé on the history of memory by one of the most influential historians of psychology.
