Wow! eBook
Mind Games: 31 Days to Rediscover Your Brain
Author(s): Martin Cohen (Author)
- Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
- Publication Date: 27 Oct. 2010
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 256 pages
- ISBN-10: 1444337092
- ISBN-13: 9781444337099
Book Description
This original and innovative book is an exploration of one of the key mysteries of the mind, the question of consciousness. Conducted through a one month course of both practical and entertaining ‘thought experiments’, these stimulating mind-games are used as a vehicle for investigating the complexities of the way the mind works.
- By turns, fun, eye-opening and intriguing approach to thinking about thinking, which contains inventive and engaging ‘thought experiments’ for the general reader
- Includes specially drawn illustrations by the French avant-garde artist, Judit
- Reunites the social science disciplines of psychology, sociology and political theory with the traditional concerns of philosophy
Editorial Reviews
Review
“I would recommend its purchase for the general reader who is already interested in thinking, philosophy and is willing to invest time and thought into getting the most out of the book. For the more academic professional it may seem too light hearted.” (Encephalitis Society, 1 April 2011)
“The upshot is that readers of this book who already have a philosophical bent will enjoy engaging with it at a discursive level while the more general reader will gain a deeper sense of the diversity and quirkiness, the subtleties and complexities, of that infinite inner world which is the mind.” (Suite101.com, November 2010)
“Cohen is an author who specialises in popular books on philosophy, social science and politics and, essentially, this new one is an introduction to thinking about thinking. It blends psychological and social studies with philosophical theory for the first time, eschewing technical jargon and using easily understood scenarios to demonstrate the theme.”
(www.mysteriousplanet.net, November 2010)
“This book is very much in that vein of bringing philosophy to the masses and encouraging people to think.”
(The Bookbag, November 2010)
“Readers of this book who already have a philosophical bent will enjoy engaging with it at a discursive level while the more general reader will gain a deeper sense of the diversity and quirkiness, the subtleties and complexities, of that infinite inner world which is the mind.”
(www.suite101.com, November 2010)
Review
―George MacDonald Ross, University of Leeds
From the Inside Flap
Why do we find statistical flukes so perturbing and extraordinary – like a run of forty tails when tossing a coin? Such events and such arrangements are no less likely than any other. The significance is only in our minds.
Why do children sometimes speak as though talking aloud to themselves, even when, on the face of it, they are talking to someone else?
This original and innovative book is an exploration of one of the key mysteries of the mind, the question of consciousness, conducted through a self-directed course of both practical and entertaining ‘thought experiments’.
These are not mind games in the Sudoku sense of puzzles or in the scientific sense of exploring the functions and behaviour of the brain. Nor are they just abstract philosophical games. Rather, here will find a one month course of inventive and stimulating exercises which provide a framework to personally investigate the way that your mind – and the minds around you – actually work.
Mind Games throws light on the traditional concerns of philosophy with a dash of psychology, sociology and political theory. Written as a fun, eye-opening and intriguing introduction to thinking about thinking, readers will at the very least come away with a sense of the myriad variety and wonderful idiosyncrasy of the mind and its surprisingly little understood world.
From the Back Cover
Why do we find statistical flukes so perturbing and extraordinary – like a run of forty tails when tossing a coin? Such events and such arrangements are no less likely than any other. The significance is only in our minds.
Why do children sometimes speak as though talking aloud to themselves, even when, on the face of it, they are talking to someone else?
This original and innovative book is an exploration of one of the key mysteries of the mind, the question of consciousness, conducted through a self-directed course of both practical and entertaining ‘thought experiments’.
These are not mind games in the Sudoku sense of puzzles or in the scientific sense of exploring the functions and behaviour of the brain. Nor are they just abstract philosophical games. Rather, here will find a one month course of inventive and stimulating exercises which provide a framework to personally investigate the way that your mind – and the minds around you – actually work.
Mind Games throws light on the traditional concerns of philosophy with a dash of psychology, sociology and political theory. Written as a fun, eye-opening and intriguing introduction to thinking about thinking, readers will at the very least come away with a sense of the myriad variety and wonderful idiosyncrasy of the mind and its surprisingly little understood world.
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Mind Games
31 Days to Rediscover Your BrainBy Martin Cohen
John Wiley & Sons
Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4443-3709-9
Chapter One
Day 1
Words
Task
Spend all day trying to think for yourself
But already, we’re off to a bad start! These words you are now reading, whose are they?
Whose is that voice in your head? Yours or mine?
When you hear someone speak, the words remain theirs – to be ignored or disagreed with as you choose. But somehow to read someone’s thoughts is to allow them, however temporarily, to take over the language centres of your brain. For as long as you are caught up in what they say, the writer becomes your inner voice.
Does that mean that, for a moment, the writer becomes the reader?
Or does it mean instead that, for a moment, the reader becomes the writer?
(Continues…)
Excerpted from Mind Gamesby Martin Cohen Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission of John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
