Issue: Science and understanding

The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding

The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding

Posted by | Mar 1, 2021 | |

‘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

I am a Strange Loop

Posted by | Feb 13, 2021 | |

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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The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its Secrets

The Hidden Half: How the World Conceals its Secrets

Posted by | Jan 13, 2021 | |

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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Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things

Posted by | Nov 9, 2020 | |

For centuries, the scientific question of life’s origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems.
But how life began isn’t just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe. — Amazon.co.uk

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