Heisenberg
Well-Known Member
I'm glad you're finding it useful. Most people consider these types of subjects to be very dry and tedious. If you find yourself craving even more when you are done, try the book Thinking Fast and Slow, which will teach you about system 1 (intuitive) vs system 2 (analytical) thinking. Particularly it explains how system 1 can so easily and insidiously interfere with system 2. After that, try Mistakes Were Made (but not by me), which explains cognitive dissonance theory. I was able to find torrents for the audio versions. That should keep you busy for a while, but when you are finished you'll have a pretty good grasp of what the current scientific view of cognition is.
In case you want to refer back to this post sometime in the future, here are some more that I found enlightening:
Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite (talks about how our brains are modular, meaning a lizard brain inside of a mammal brain inside of a primate brain, and how evolution shaped our thinking.)
The Invisible Gorilla (goes into greater detail about the particular ways in which intuition leads astray our intellectual faculties.)
I Am a Strange Loop (argues that consciousness is a result of our brain's ability to observe itself, creating an endless feedback loop. We first realize we are a system and start watching ourselves. Then we realize we are watching a system that knows it's being watched. Then we realize we are a watched system that is watching a watched system which knows it's being watched by a watched system, ect. Each step changes the watcher and the watched, which are actually the same system. From this arises illusions such as free will, morality, and perhaps all of consciousnesses itself.)
Anyway, I could list a dozen more. Feel free to ask me if you still haven't had enough.
