Friday, July 1, 2011

KNOW THYSELF

"Know thyself" the ad for eight books from Princeton University Press says. Here are the titles and subtitles of the books in their ad from The New York Review.

Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness

Why  Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and The Modular Mind

The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization

Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our work, Wages, and Well-Being

Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do About It

Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds

Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality

The Brain and the Meaning of Life

The last, by Paul Thagard, had no  subtitle but the ad offers this comment on its content from Michael Shermer in Science
"[Thagard]offers a tightly reasoned, often humorous, and original contribution to the emerging practice of applying science to areas heretofore the province of philosophers, theologians, ethicists, and politicians. What is reality and how can we know it? Are mind and brain one or two? What is the source of the sense of self? What is love? What is the difference between right and wrong, and how can we know it? What is the most legitimate form of government? What is the meaning of life, and how can we find happiness in it? Thagard employs the latest tools and findings of science in his attempts to answer these and additional questions,"

Before you invest I suggest you try to answer a few of these questions for yourself, as the heading of the ad seems to suggest.