In I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter blends philosophy and personal reflection to explore how self and consciousness emerge from self-referential loops in the brain. I specialize in thinking about thinking. (xv) What gives us word-users the right to make life-and-death decisions concerning other living creatures that have no words? In the final analysis,Keep reading

In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman famously posits that human thought operates through two systems: fast, intuitive System 1 and slow, deliberate System 2. System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. (20) System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it,Keep reading

Flatland (1884), a satirical novella by Edwin Abbott, depicts a 2-dimensional world inhabited by geometric shapes. The narrator, a Square, discovers the existence of 3-dimensional Spaceland, as well as 1-dimensional Lineland and 0-dimensional Pointland. Upon sharing these revelations, he is imprisoned for treason by the authorities who enforce a rigid belief system and social hierarchyKeep reading

In Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, George Lakoff debunks objectivism by showing how categorization and reasoning are shaped by experience and embodied cognition. Categorization is not a matter to be taken lightly. There is nothing more basic than categorization to our thought, perception, action, and speech. (5) The view of reason as disembodied manipulation ofKeep reading

In Categories We Live By, Gregory Murphy argues our constant need to categorize influences everyone and everything from language and law to life and death. What is the nature of categories? Are they real? Do they exist in nature, or are they made up by people? Does our language determine what categories we have? WhatKeep reading