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Graziano "God Soul Mind Brain The book is divided into two parts: Mind and Part 2. Short and sweet yet accomplishes so much in pages. Very accessible book, author does a wonderful job of explaining complex topics with ease and does so in a very even-handed manner. Is able to provide a compelling theory that explains how are physical brains help us "perceive" the spiritual world.
The concept of perception is best explained in this book. A very good explanation of what we truly experience. Explains how the human brain is equipped with two different built-in methods to explain the world. Interesting conception of God. Consciousness as a process of building a perceptual model. Great explanation on neurons. Richard Dawkins would be so proud. There is a suggested further reading section but no links to them.
There is no glossary or footnotes either. A better explanation to debunk "no fundamental moral truths" was in order. I "perceived" that the author at times was being too nice. Some explanations were not entirely satisfying. Just saying that souls and spirits are a product of our perception is not satisfying. Additional supporting empirical evidence to debunk was in order. In summary, a very solid, worthwhile book that accomplishes a lot while not requiring a large investment of time. Some very good explanations on how our brains work and how it helps us perceive the world we live in.
Key and the Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. I really enjoyed this book. It introduced me to the basics of the current thoughts on the evolution of consciousness. The explanations are simple enough for the layman and it reads easily.
Although this is clearly his first attempt, Graziano's "Consciousness and the Social Brain" is obviously a polished and better researched version of this book. As a lay person with interest in both neuroscience and philosophy, I found that this book should be a required reading at both high school and college level. View shipping rates and policies Average Customer Review: Be the first to review this item Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Customer reviews There are no customer reviews yet. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Get fast, free shipping with Amazon Prime. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations. The pleasure or one of the many pleasures of the book subtitled 'A Neuroscientist's Reflection on the Spirit World' is the non-confrontational manner in which Graziano approaches the concept that soul and spirit and God may be better understood by exploring the working of the human brain.
This small, immensely readable book is not a scientific treatise but instead is a book for the masses, a gently kind introduction to the concepts of Neuroscientific explorations that explore the neural mechanisms of the 'social brain' - the concept of perception that allows us to react to the world in an understandable way - that allow us to construct a reasonable explanation for where spiritual thoughts, the concept of soul, and indeed where the major impact that religion began and continues.
The slow unraveling of Graziano's information he so comfortably shares provides a means of understanding how reasonable consciousness that can explain both science and soul. This is his neural basis of belief in the unseen. God s and spirits are simply additional examples of the process of social perception, a theory he explains in the most useful and unarguable manner using examples of how we all interact with each other based on perceptions our brain forms from the information it incorporates from past or learned experiences.
The purpose is to be useful to you. Whatever is advantageous - that is what the brain computes. It is a process of constructing a model in our brain of an object from the real world. That model is not necessarily true to the actual object, but is simplified and altered, becoming a blend of the real and the invented. The attributes don't feel like inventions, they are perceived as objective reality. He then leads the reader to the idea that 'God is the perception of a single, unified mind behind every otherwise inexplicable event: It is a perceptual illusion. His kindness and humanity is best quoted from his writing.
Religion, like all culture, grows on social machinery in our brains. To function socially, we must understand each other's minds; therefore beliefs and customs spread by imitation from person to person; therefore a cultural competition among beliefs emerges; therefore belief systems evolve to be especially good at promoting themselves. For that matter, therefore politics. Therefore all of human culture. If religion is profoundly irrational, so is the rest of human culture. Culture is by nature a complicated, bizarre, irrational, fantastic, addictive pleasure, sometimes brutal, sometimes incredibly generous We can study the human mind from a scientific point of view and come to a logical understanding of its intrinsically bizarre illogic.
To me, that contradiction is one of the most marvelous properties that we humans possess. Graziano thus becomes the great mediator in the too often cruel battle between science and 'religion'. He proves himself in this superb book to be not only a brilliant writer but a contemporary philosopher. This book should be read by everyone, form the classrooms of high schools and colleges to the family rooms of every individual in the family of man.
Mar 03, Lura rated it it was ok Shelves: XP Though I do believe it's a bad sign when a book aimed at "the most general, non scientific audience" p 11 has me searching for a dictionary multiple times throughout the course of the book. The author adores ten-dollar words. I have a fairly large vocabulary myself, or I thought I did before reading this book. For example, the author really likes the word ubiquitous. I thought I knew what it meant, but I wasn't sure. According to Merriam-Webster Online, the word means "existing or being everywhere at the same time: Why not just say widespread?
The meaning isn't identical, but it would get the point across. Without making people look for a dictionary.
There were other words I had to look up but ubiquitous was the most, well, ubiquitous of the lot. A single page of uninterrupted text is hard on the eyes. Why do that to your readers? Give the eyes a break! The book has a lot of science in it, which is to be expected. It is, after all, about neuroscience and the search for the soul. I have a pretty good background in science, having taken the equivalent to two semesters each of biology, chemistry, and physics - all at a college level.
Biology and Chemistry were AP courses taken in high school. I actually did take two semesters of physics in college. Surprisingly, none of that helped my understanding of the various neuroscience principles outlined in this work as much as my single semester of general psychology.
Turns out there is a lot of overlap between the two. I don't recommend reading this book unless you have a good background in the sciences and a good vocabulary. Or at least a good dictionary. Also, a good memory. By the time I got to the end of this book, I had forgotten what point the author was trying to make. Obviously, it didn't come across very well. Jun 24, Book rated it really liked it Shelves: Graziano "God Soul Mind Brain The book is divided into two parts: Mind and Part 2.
Short and sweet yet accomplishes so much in pages. Very accessible boo God Soul Mind Brain: Very accessible book, author does a wonderful job of explaining complex topics with ease and does so in a very even-handed manner. Is able to provide a compelling theory that explains how are physical brains help us "perceive" the spiritual world. The concept of perception is best explained in this book. A very good explanation of what we truly experience. Explains how the human brain is equipped with two different built-in methods to explain the world.
Interesting conception of God. Consciousness as a process of building a perceptual model.
The Spaces Between Us: Amazon Music Stream millions of songs. I bought this book thinking it might be excellent for our book study, but the members found the material so challenging that we decided to read it individually so we could take time to internalize the ideas and reflect on their relevance to each of us at our own pace. It is, after all, about neuroscience and the search for the soul. He doesn't notice that he is privileging his own path, just as do the adherents of other belief systems. In clear language and with helpful examples like the one of the red apple which, in fact, isn't red as color is just an invented attribute computed inside our heads, the author takes the reader on a fascinating Being both a Neuroscientist and a novelist, Michael S. A better explanation to debunk "no fundamental moral truths" was in order.
Great explanation on neurons. Richard Dawkins would be so proud. There is a suggested further reading section but no links to them. There is no glossary or footnotes either. A better explanation to debunk "no fundamental moral truths" was in order. I "perceived" that the author at times was being too nice. Some explanations were not entirely satisfying. Just saying that souls and spirits are a product of our perception is not satisfying. Additional supporting empirical evidence to debunk was in order.
In summary, a very solid, worthwhile book that accomplishes a lot while not requiring a large investment of time. Some very good explanations on how our brains work and how it helps us perceive the world we live in. Key and the Blank Slate by Steven Pinker. Jan 20, Lis Carey rated it it was amazing Shelves: Michael Graziano is a professor of neuroscience at Princeton.
He freely identifies himself as an atheist, and suggests that he may somewhere on the autism spectrum and that this may affect his view of the world and of people. Graziano argues that a belief in God is not imaginary, a delusion, or even a "belief" in the usual sense, but rather a perception that grows directly out of the same neural circuitry that allows us to perceive consciousness not only in other people, but in ourselves. We tho Michael Graziano is a professor of neuroscience at Princeton. We those of us who are religious perceive God in the world for the same reasons we perceive consciousness and personality in other people--because evolution has created the machinery in the brain that allows social animals to predict and understand each other's behavior.
This is an essential ability for animals in complex social relationships, and like other abilities, likely varies in degree between individuals.