Description
GRAY MATTER UNDER INVESTIGATION In his acclaimed book The End of Science, John Horgan ignited a firestorm of controversy about the limits of knowledge in a wide range of sciences. Now in The Undiscovered Mind he focuses on the single most important scientific enterprise of all -- the effort to understand the human mind.
Horgan takes us inside laboratories, hospitals, and universities to meet neuro-scientists, Freudian analysts, electroshock therapists, behavioral geneticists, evolutionary psychologists, artificial intelligence engineers, and philosophers of consciousness. He looks into the persistent explanatory gap between mind and body that Socrates pondered and shows that it has not been bridged. He investigates what he calls the Humpty Dumpty dilemma, the fact that neuroscientists can break the brain and mind into pieces but cannot put the pieces back together again. He presents evidence that the placebo effect is the primary ingredient of psychotherapy, Prozac, and other treatments for mental disorders. As Horgan shows, the mystery of human consciousness, of why and how we think, remains so impregnable that to expect the attempts of scientific method and technology to penetrate it anytime soon is absurd.
Author: John Horgan
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 11/14/2000
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.42h x 5.53w x 0.79d
ISBN13: 9780684865782
ISBN10: 0684865785
BISAC Categories:
- Medical | Neuroscience
- Science | Philosophy & Social Aspects
- Psychology | Neuropsychology
Horgan takes us inside laboratories, hospitals, and universities to meet neuro-scientists, Freudian analysts, electroshock therapists, behavioral geneticists, evolutionary psychologists, artificial intelligence engineers, and philosophers of consciousness. He looks into the persistent explanatory gap between mind and body that Socrates pondered and shows that it has not been bridged. He investigates what he calls the Humpty Dumpty dilemma, the fact that neuroscientists can break the brain and mind into pieces but cannot put the pieces back together again. He presents evidence that the placebo effect is the primary ingredient of psychotherapy, Prozac, and other treatments for mental disorders. As Horgan shows, the mystery of human consciousness, of why and how we think, remains so impregnable that to expect the attempts of scientific method and technology to penetrate it anytime soon is absurd.
Author: John Horgan
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 11/14/2000
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.69lbs
Size: 8.42h x 5.53w x 0.79d
ISBN13: 9780684865782
ISBN10: 0684865785
BISAC Categories:
- Medical | Neuroscience
- Science | Philosophy & Social Aspects
- Psychology | Neuropsychology
About the Author
John Horgan is the author of The End of Science, a U.S. bestseller that has been translated into ten languages. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The New Republic, Lingua Franca, Slate, The Sciences, and Discover, among other publications in the United States and Europe. He lives in Garrison, New Yo