Wow! eBook
Balance: How It Works and What It Means
Author(s): Paul Thagard (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: July 5, 2022
- Language: English
- Print length: 352 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231205589
- ISBN-13: 9780231205580
Book Description
Paul Thagard explores the physiological workings and metaphorical resonance of balance in the brain, the body, and society. He describes the neural mechanisms that keep bodies balanced and explains why their failures can result in nausea, falls, or vertigo. Thagard connects bodily balance with leading ideas in neuroscience, including the nature of consciousness. He analyzes balance metaphors across science, medicine, economics, the arts, and philosophy, showing why some aid understanding but others are misleading or harmful. Thagard contends that balance is ultimately a matter of making sense of the world. In both literal and metaphorical senses, balance is what enables people to solve the puzzles of life by turning sensory signals or an incongruous comparison into a coherent whole.
Bridging philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience,
Balance shows how an unheralded concept’s many meanings illuminate the human condition.Editorial Reviews
Review
Thagard presents a clever juxtaposition of the physical context of balance and a broader insertion of balance as a metaphorical tool, exploring important aspects of science and philosophy alike. Unique, synthetic, and compelling. — Robert DeSalle, author of
Our Senses: An Immersive ExperienceFrom sub-atomics to global warming, neurons to societies, theory to practice―even COVID to consciousness―
Balance is satisfyingly vast. Thagard’s polymathic, interdisciplinary, approachable writing produces myriad insights (regarding religion, economics, politics, Trump, tipping points, toxic metaphors, “alternative facts,” etc.). Balance aptly centralizes equilibria (and sometimes helpful imbalances!) within humanity. Integrating even art, emotions, and health (e.g., avoiding falls, anti-vaxxers, and climate change), Balance boosts readers’ intellects. Breezy-yet-deep definitions complement innumerable identity-changing explanations―particularly about how Thagard’s “metabalance” helps reveal life’s meaning. — Michael A. Ranney, University of California BerkeleyExceptionally well written, organized and presented for both an academic and non-specialist general readership. ―
Midwest Book Review
