A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves

by Burton, Robert A., M.D., M.D.

• ISBN13: 9781250001856
• ISBN10: 1250001854
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-23
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

A critical look at cutting edge and key assumptions in cognitive science that offers a new way of exploring how our brains generate thought What if what we consider to be reason-based, deliberative judgment is really the product of involuntary mental sensations? In A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind, Dr. Robert Burton takes a close look at the key false assumptions that permeate the field of cognitive science and offers a new way of exploring how our brains generate thought. The essential paradox that drives this cutting-edge theory is that the same mechanisms that prevent understanding the mind also generate a sense that we can attain such understanding. In A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind, Burton presents his theory of the "mental sensory system"a system that generates the main components of consciousness: a sense of self, a sense of choice and free will, and how we make moral decisions. Bringing together anecdotes, practical thought experiments, and cutting-edge neuroscience to show how these various strands of thought and mental sensations interact, A Skeptic's Guide to the Mindoffers a powerful tool for knowing what we can and cannot say about the mind; how to discern good from bad cognitive science studies; and most importantly, how to consider the moral implications of these studies. This is a pathbreaking model for considering the interaction between conscious and unconscious thought.

Author Biography

Robert Burton, MD is a physician, journalist, and author. A graduate of Yale University and University of California at San Francisco medical school, he was formerly chief of the Division of Neurology at Mt. Zion-UCSF Hospital and Associate Chief of the Department of Neurosciences. Burton’s work has appeared in Salon and the San Francisco Chronicle, among others, and he frequently is invited to speak about the brain, the mind, neuroscience, and philosophy of science. The author of On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not and three critically acclaimed novels, he lives in Sausalito, California.

Table of Contents

Praise for A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind:

“Burton questions the fundamental assumptions of his field – with A Skeptics Guide to the Mind, he takes on the very foundations of cognitive science, leading readers to valuable insights in the process.”—Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems

 

Praise for On Being Certain:

 

"On Being Certain challenges our understanding of the very nature of thought and provokes readers to ask what Burton calls 'the most basic of questions': How do we know what we know?”

—Scientific American Mind

If there’s anything you think you’re certain of, read this book and you may change your mind.”

—Skeptical Inquirer

 

“In his brilliant new book, Burton systematically and convincingly shows that certainty is a mental state, a feeling like anger or pride that can help guide us, but that doesn't dependably reflect objective truth."

—ForbesLife