Neuroscience
I like when more than one of my interests combine, as they did in a 1983 book I recently read by Rebecca Goldstein.
In The Mind-body Problem, Goldstein's heroine is a philosopher / graduate student at Princeton married to a math genuius. She jokingly tells her future husband that she is interested in the "body" of the mind-body problem, and then defends her joke (because he doesn't get it):
" 'Well, if there's a philosophy of mind, why shouldn't there be a philosophy of body? After all, the main question in philosophy is the mind-body problem. Why assume only the mind makes the relationship between them problematic? Why assume only mind needs analysis?' " Kind of a joke, but the story is set in 1976, and in 2007 ... it's closer to truth than it was 30 years ago (see Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee's "The Body has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better" (2007) ... about which more soon).
Anyway, the book is a nice blend of philosophy of mind and mid-list women's fiction.
I discovered it by reading Goldstein's recent essay in New Scientist entitled "Science in Fiction" in which she describes her own struggle between reading fiction and "good for you" stuff as a child:
"Every time I visited the library I allowed myself to take out one work of fiction. To balance it, I had to take out a book that was good for me, something I could learn from. I forbade myself from reading the storybook before completing the good-for-me book." Goldstein eventually became a philosopher of science and a novelist.
She's writing a new novel about science and religion.
For More Information
* Goldstein, Rebecca. The Mind-body Problem. New York : Random House, ©1983.
* --- List of works in WorldCat.
* --- “Science in Fiction.“ New Scientist, 8/25/2007, Vol. 195 Issue 2618, p43. Available in EBSCO, LexisNexis and more.
- Embodied Cognition
I mentioned Embodied Cognition briefly in my talk at SILS yesterday so thought I would post a bit more about it here. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a nice definition, which begins: "Embodied Cognition is a growing research program in cognitive...
- Reading Fiction Improves Empathy
Stephen Abram pointed out a fascinating article from the (Toronto) Globe and Mail, citing some research which shows that folks who read fiction have "exceptionally strong" social skills. The Globe and Mail interview Keith Oatley about his research, and...
- Beyond Belief
Here's a terrific conference I wish I could have attended: The ScienceNetwork's sequel to the 2006 Beyond Belief conference, the 2007 Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0 was designed "to undertake together an ongoing reconnaissance of Enlightenment...
- Library Journal's Best Sci-tech Books, 2006
Interesting list of the Best Sci-Tech books of 2006 in the March 1, 2007 issue of Library Journal: Science's Big Picture // Best Sci-Tech Books 2006 By Gregg Sapp — March 1, 2007 "From our prehistoric past to the promise and perils of our future,...
- Why I Love Cogsci
The Feb. 12 issue of the New Yorker had an extensive article in Pat and Paul Churchland, philosophers of mind at UCSD. So much cool stuff! I'll quote snippets of the article, but if you like this kind of thing, it's worth tracking down the whole...
Neuroscience
Fiction / Science / Philosophy
I like when more than one of my interests combine, as they did in a 1983 book I recently read by Rebecca Goldstein.
In The Mind-body Problem, Goldstein's heroine is a philosopher / graduate student at Princeton married to a math genuius. She jokingly tells her future husband that she is interested in the "body" of the mind-body problem, and then defends her joke (because he doesn't get it):
" 'Well, if there's a philosophy of mind, why shouldn't there be a philosophy of body? After all, the main question in philosophy is the mind-body problem. Why assume only the mind makes the relationship between them problematic? Why assume only mind needs analysis?' " Kind of a joke, but the story is set in 1976, and in 2007 ... it's closer to truth than it was 30 years ago (see Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee's "The Body has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better" (2007) ... about which more soon).
Anyway, the book is a nice blend of philosophy of mind and mid-list women's fiction.
I discovered it by reading Goldstein's recent essay in New Scientist entitled "Science in Fiction" in which she describes her own struggle between reading fiction and "good for you" stuff as a child:
"Every time I visited the library I allowed myself to take out one work of fiction. To balance it, I had to take out a book that was good for me, something I could learn from. I forbade myself from reading the storybook before completing the good-for-me book." Goldstein eventually became a philosopher of science and a novelist.
She's writing a new novel about science and religion.
For More Information
* Goldstein, Rebecca. The Mind-body Problem. New York : Random House, ©1983.
* --- List of works in WorldCat.
* --- “Science in Fiction.“ New Scientist, 8/25/2007, Vol. 195 Issue 2618, p43. Available in EBSCO, LexisNexis and more.
- Embodied Cognition
I mentioned Embodied Cognition briefly in my talk at SILS yesterday so thought I would post a bit more about it here. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a nice definition, which begins: "Embodied Cognition is a growing research program in cognitive...
- Reading Fiction Improves Empathy
Stephen Abram pointed out a fascinating article from the (Toronto) Globe and Mail, citing some research which shows that folks who read fiction have "exceptionally strong" social skills. The Globe and Mail interview Keith Oatley about his research, and...
- Beyond Belief
Here's a terrific conference I wish I could have attended: The ScienceNetwork's sequel to the 2006 Beyond Belief conference, the 2007 Beyond Belief: Enlightenment 2.0 was designed "to undertake together an ongoing reconnaissance of Enlightenment...
- Library Journal's Best Sci-tech Books, 2006
Interesting list of the Best Sci-Tech books of 2006 in the March 1, 2007 issue of Library Journal: Science's Big Picture // Best Sci-Tech Books 2006 By Gregg Sapp — March 1, 2007 "From our prehistoric past to the promise and perils of our future,...
- Why I Love Cogsci
The Feb. 12 issue of the New Yorker had an extensive article in Pat and Paul Churchland, philosophers of mind at UCSD. So much cool stuff! I'll quote snippets of the article, but if you like this kind of thing, it's worth tracking down the whole...