[book_talk] Book Review - Steven Pinker
- From: "Bonnie L. Sherrell" <blslarner@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Blind Chit Chat" <Blind-Chit-Chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Books for the Blind" <Books4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Blind Book Lovers Cafe" <bblc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Book Talk" <book_talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:55:23 -0800
_How the Mind Works_
by Steven Pinker
read by Mel Foster
I greatly enjoyed reading Steven Pinker's _The Language Instinct_ and
_Words and Meanings_, so when I got the chance to obtain _How the Mind
Works_ some twenty years ago I jumped at it. But somehow I found I
couldn't get more than halfway through it in print.
A few months ago it came on sale on Audible, so I picked up the audio
edition to listen to while I'm driving. It's a long book, and comes
broken into four sections when you buy it from Audible. I enjoyed it a
good deal and learned a lot about current theories on how the mind
works, for Pinker is a good one to put things into language
comprehensible to lay people. He sees the mind as being designed to
deal with information in a manner that uses calculation, but in a
different manner than does your everyday computer but that is fitted to
us as creatures that fit a distinctly intelligence-driven niche within
our environment. He sees everything as being driven by evolutionary
adaptations, and does not accept the theory of intelligent design that
is put forward by most scientists who believe in at least the
possibility of God or some other transcendental reality.
Most of the book is fully understandable in audio format, except for
some of the information in the chapter on sight and visual perception.
This chapter is full of diagrams and examples of optical illusions and
stereo-optic illusions that cannot be adequately described visually, I
found, although I could make sufficient sense of what he wrote and how
it was stated to appreciate what was described--but then I've been a
teacher of visually impaired children for most of my adult life and am
conversant with how vision works already.
One subject he avoided is how it is that human beings tend to be drawn
to the idea that there is a transcendental plane and perhaps a divine
figure, and he doesn't touch the subject of the left temporal lobe and
its role in spiritual inspiration and perception, as is detailed in
Newberg, D'Aqili, and Rause's book, _Why God Won't Go Away: Brain
Science and the Biology of Belief_.
It's a fascinating discussion that goes off into delightful tangents on
how some features of human reality such as morning sickness came to be
adaptations intended to protect a human foetus, and I do recommend it
to those who want to know more about how our fascinating brains came to
be the marvel of neural engineering that they are. I am only sorry
that Dr. Pinker cannot accept that perhaps there is a Designer out
there who might just nudge the system in the way He sees best so as to
enjoy the bio-diversity He apparently craves. I found the Afterword
added in about 2005 to be further enlightening.
Definitely available in print and audio and possibly as an e-book; I
would be pleasantly surprised to find out it is available as a talking
book or in braille formats.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise
cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
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