"When it comes to the phenomenon that is consciousness, there is one point on which scientists, philosophers, and artists all agree: that it feels like something to be us. Yet the fact we have subjective experience of the world remains one of nature's greatest mysteries. How is it that our mental operations are accompanied by feelings, thoughts, and a sense of self? What would a scientific investigation of our inner life look like, considering we have as little distance and perspective on it as fish do of the sea? In A World Appears, Michael Pollan traces the unmapped continent that is consciousness, bringing radically different perspectives-scientific, philosophical, literary, spiritual and psychedelic-to see what each can teach us about this central fact of life. When neuroscientists began studying consciousness in the early 1990s, they sought to explain how and why three pounds of spongy grey matter could generate a subjective point of view-assuming that the brain is the source of our felt reality. Pollan takes us to the cutting edge of the field, where scientists are entertaining more radical (and less materialist) theories of consciousness. He introduces us to "plant neurobiologists" searching for the first flicker of consciousness in plants; scientists striving to engineer feelings into AI, and psychologists and novelists seeking to capture the felt experience of our slippery stream of consciousness. In Pollan's dazzling exploration of consciousness, he discovers a world far deeper and stranger than our everyday reality. Eye-opening and mind-expanding, A World Appears takes us into the laboratories of our own minds, ultimately showing us how we might make better use of the gift of awareness to more meaningfully connect with our deepest selves"-- Provided by publisher.

Does thought depend crucially on language, as some philosophers maintain, or can abstract reasoning and other faculties exist in the absence of language? This voume, based on a Fyssen Foundation symposium held in Versailles in April 1987, addresses this crucial question in a new way, bringing together experts on non-verbal thinking in adults, in pre-linguistic infants, and in animals. The nineteen chapters, discussion and editorial comment represent an impressive body of material, shedding new light on many aspects of the problem. Topics covered include the role of the non-verbal right cerebral hemisphere in humans; the investigation of non-verbal aspects of various categories of cognition (such as abstract reasoning, spatial awareness, and pattern recognition); evidence for cognition without concious awareness; and neurological and developmental evidence. The concluding chapter is a personal account by a gifted but dyslexic mathematician of the nature of his handicap and the non-vebal reasoning that he has developed to cope with this. various

If time is money, then memory is the bank and Harry Lorayne will show you how to make every minute count, dramatically increasing performance, productivity, and profits.-- Enhance your powers of concentration and observation.-- Double or even triple your daily work output, eliminate careless errors, quickly skim and retain business reports, news articles, and technical data.-- Breeze through exams, improve your grades and classroom performance, reduce your homework time, and increase your free time.-- Give speeches without notes and without anxiety, learn foreign languages more easily, excel at poker, bridge, and other games.-- Heighten your mental agility, learning power, and conversational skills.-- Discover the newfound authority, confidence, and pleasure that come from a quick, sharp, active mind.Whatever your lifestyle or walk of life, begin your countdown to success today, and put a world of knowledge and know-how at your fingertips

Throughout the ages philosophers have examined their own lives in an attempt both to find some meaning and to explain the roots of their philosophical perspectives. This volume is an introduction to philosophical autobiography, a rich but hitherto ignored literary genre that questions the self, its social context, and existence in general. The author analyzes representative narratives from antiquity to postmodernity, focusing in particular on three case studies: the autobiographies of St. Augustine, Rousseau, and Sartre. Through the study of these exemplary texts, philosophical reflection on the self emerges as a valid alternative to Freudian psychoanalysis and as a way of promoting self-renewal and change.