Pathways to Wisdom: the Risky Adventure of Expanding One’s Horizons
How six books on cosmology, human nature, consciousness, stories and thermodynamics challenge the faith of a progressive Christian.
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Issue: Science and understanding
The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding
‘Mercier and Sperber offer a surprising and powerful response to the new orthodoxy propounded by Kahneman and Tversky … arguing that the supposed flaws of hot, fast, automatic thinking are actually design features which work remarkably well’ Julian Baggini
Reason, we are told, is what makes us human, the source of our knowledge and wisdom. But, if reason is so useful, why didn’t it also evolve in other animals? If it is that reliable, why do we produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense?
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I am a Strange Loop
One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks, where does the self come from — and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. Compulsively readable and endlessly thought-provoking, this is a moving and profound inquiry into the nature of mind. — amazon.co.uk
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Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe
In both time and space, the cosmos is astoundingly vast, and yet is governed by simple, elegant, universal mathematical laws.
On this cosmic timeline, our human era is spectacular but fleeting. Someday, we know, we will all die. And, we know, so too will the universe itself. — amamzon.co.uk
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The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its Secrets
Why does one smoker die of lung cancer but another live to 100? The answer is ‘The Hidden Half’ – those random, unknowable variables that mess up our attempts to comprehend the world.
We humans are very clever creatures – but we’re idiots about how clever we really are. In this entertaining and ingenious book, Blastland reveals how in our quest to make the world more understandable, we lose sight of how unexplainable it often is. The result – from GDP figures to medicine – is that experts know a lot less than they think.
Filled with compelling stories from economics, genetics, business, and science, The Hidden Half is a warning that an explanation which works in one arena may not work in another. Entertaining and provocative, it will change how you view the world. — amazon.co.uk
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