Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction

by John Brockman

Overview

Unlock your mind. From the bestselling authors of Thinking, Fast and Slow; The Black Swan; and Stumbling on Happiness comes a cutting-edge exploration of the mysteries of rational thought, decision-making, intuition, morality, willpower, problem-solving, prediction, forecasting, unconscious behavior, and beyond. 

Edited by John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"—The Guardian), Thinking presents original ideas by today's leading psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who are radically expanding our understanding of human thought.

Contributors include:

• Daniel Kahneman on the power (and pitfalls) of human intuition and "unconscious" thinking
• Daniel Gilbert on desire, prediction, and why getting what we want doesn't always make us happy
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the limitations of statistics in guiding decision-making
• Vilayanur Ramachandran on the scientific underpinnings of human nature
• Simon Baron-Cohen on the startling effects of testosterone on the brain
• Daniel C. Dennett on decoding the architecture of the "normal" human mind
• Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on mental disorders and the crucial developmental phase of adolescence
• Jonathan Haidt, Sam Harris, and Roy Baumeister on the science of morality, ethics, and the emerging synthesis of evolutionary and biological thinking
• Gerd Gigerenzer on rationality and what informs our choices

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062258540
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/29/2013
Series:	Best of Edge Series
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	657,596
Product dimensions:	5.36(w) x 7.98(h) x 1.01(d)

About the Author

The publisher of the online science salon Edge.org, John Brockman is the editor of Know This, This Idea Must Die, This Explains Everything, This Will Make You Smarter, and other volumes.

Table of Contents

1 The Normal Well-Tempered Mind Daniel C. Dennett 1

2 How to Win at Forecasting Philip Tetlock Daniel Kahneman 18

3 Smart Heuristics Gerd Gigerenzer John Brockman 39

4 Affective Forecasting … Or … The Big Wombassa: What You Think You're Going to Get, and What You Don't Get, When You Get What You Want Daniel Gilbert John Brockman 55

5 Adventures in Behavioral Neurology-Or-What Neurology Can Tell Us About Human Nature Vilayanur Ramachandran 69

6 The Social Psychological Narrative-Or-What is Social Psychology, Anyway? Timothy D. Wilson Daniel Gilbert 99

7 The Adolescent Brain Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Simon Baron-Cohen 115

8 Essentialism Bruce Hood 132

9 Testosterone on My Mind and in My Brain Simon Baron-Cohen John Brockman 156

10 Insight Gary Klein Daniel Kahneman 193

11 A Sense of Cleanliness Simone Schnall 215

12 The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics Nassim Nicholas Taleb John Brockman 225

13 Life is the Way the Animal is in the World Alva Noë 252

14 Recursion and Human Thought: Why the Pirahã Don't Have Numbers Daniel L. Everett 269

15 The New Science of Morality Jonathan Haidt Joshua Greene Sam Harris Roy Baumeister Paul Bloom David Pizarro Joshua Knobe John Brockman 292

16 The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking Daniel Kahneman 386

Index 411

Editorial Reviews

For ... readers interested in keeping up with what serious thinkers are thinking about thinking, this book offers nourishing food for thought.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Thinking is excellent and mind-expanding in its entirety.” — BrainPickings

From the Publisher

Thinking is excellent and mind-expanding in its entirety.

BrainPickings

For ... readers interested in keeping up with what serious thinkers are thinking about thinking, this book offers nourishing food for thought.

Stephanie Garber

2013-10-01
Another compendium derived from the online salon Edge.com, this time essays from its section called "Mind." Literary agent and Edge founder Brockman (editor: This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works, 2013, etc.) assembles 16 pieces from academics and researchers in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics and statistics. Like Brockman's other compendiums, this one presents an assortment of experts holding forth on what they know best, what research is revealing in their respective fields, and what the impact of that research may be. The book lacks an introduction, but more than half the pieces feature introductions by other experts, whose credentials are briefly cited, adding layers of authenticity to this assortment. The presentations vary in style and complexity, with some decidedly more challenging than others. Daniel Dennett's "The Normal Well-Tempered Mind" is a well-delivered lecture, as are Sarah-Jayne Blakemore's "The Adolescent Brain" and Daniel Kahneman's "The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking." Simon Baron-Cohen's "Testosterone on My Mind and in My Brain" is a talk before members of the London cultural scene that concludes with a lively question-and-answer session with the distinguished audience. "The New Science of Morality," which is labeled a conference, features a series of speeches by seven researchers delving into questions in the field of moral psychology. Especially engaging is Vilayanur Ramachandran's "Adventures in Behavioral Neurology--or--What Neurology Can Tell Us about Human Nature," in which the author looks inside the brain for the source of some mysterious syndromes. Much more demanding for lay readers is "The Fourth Quadrant: A Map of the Limits of Statistics" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. For serious readers interested in keeping up with what serious thinkers are thinking about thinking, this book offers nourishing food for thought.

Kirkus Reviews

An assortment of scientific essays from various experts examines human thinking and probability. Narrator Tom Perkins’s relaxed authority helps tone down the book’s intellectual density by keeping the atmosphere friendly. The lightness of his performance softens the writing when it’s polemical or scientific and adds warmth when the content is more conversational. Though the material is decidedly fascinating if you’re interested in these matters, it’s missing the clarifying introductions and attention to organization that one expects in a book aimed at general listeners. Without Perkins’s down-to-earth performance, THINKING could have easily sounded like an inaccessible textbook. But his friendly delivery makes the scholarship and perspective embodied in these essays easy to parse into a coherent learning experience. T.W. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2015 - AudioFile