Dennett has ideas about what human beings are and what they are capable of that he wants desperately to maintain against all science and logic. He wants to believe—and wants to convince us—that we are capable of … [Read more...]
Review of Antonio Damasio’s, The Feeling Of What Happens
In his introduction Damasio states: “The . . . fact is that consciousness is not a monolith, at least not in humans: it can be separated into simple and complex kinds, and the neurological evidence makes the separation … [Read more...]
Review of Sam Harris’s Waking Up
Sam did a great job of dealing with the complexities of free will in his book by that name, but in Waking Up he is writing about consciousness and the self, which are altogether more difficult subjects, and he flounders. Like … [Read more...]
Review of Sam Harris’s “Waking Up,” Chapter 1
To put Sam’s intentions in my terms, he wants people to learn to access experiences most people’s brains are capable of, but that aren’t widely promoted in western culture. He thinks this will be good for them, and for anyone … [Read more...]
Buddha: “Resting in the Peace of Immortality”
Originally posted on 08-30-07: The title above is a quote from the Buddha, and I read it this morning in Marvin Minsky's latest book, The Emotion Machine. If you're at all interested in how your brain works, what makes your … [Read more...]
Further Exploration: Shifting Attention Away From the Verbal
Originally posted on 05-21-07: Yesterday I talked about one of the ways that meditation can improve understanding of our brains—by giving us another perspective on their operations—but there are many other insights … [Read more...]
Be Here Now; The Complexity of the Present Moment
Originally posted 05-10-07: One of the first books I ever read on meditation was Be Here Now, in the early 70's. Since then I've seen many references to staying in the present moment, paying attention, mindfulness, etc. but … [Read more...]