For most of human history, people have assumed that some kind of vitalistic essence had to be added to matter to produce life. The belief in an immaterial soul was pervasive. At one point, scientists even tried to weigh the soul by weighing a body right before and after death,… read more "The Riddle of Consciousness"
Brainwashed: Neuroscience and Its Perversions
Sally Satel and Scott Lilienfeld have written a new book, Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience. Its purpose is not to critique neuroscience, but to expose and protest its mindless oversimplification, interpretive license, and premature application in the legal, commercial, clinical, and philosophical domains. The brain is a wondrous thing:… read more "Brainwashed: Neuroscience and Its Perversions"
A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind
In his first book, On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Wrong,neurologist Robert Burton showed that our certainty that we are right has nothing to do with how right we are. He explained how brain mechanisms can make us feel even more confident about false beliefs than about… read more "A Skeptic’s Guide to the Mind"