Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Peter Godfrey-Smith
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Nonfiction, Animals/Philosophy/Science
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: For a long time, many humans - especially in the "Western" world - considered ourselves the sole thinking, self-aware animals on Earth. But that kind of thinking, even assuming it was true, never answered questions about how we came to possess the brains we have, able to process information and ideas as we can. More recently, research has shown us we are not as alone as we think we are; other animals have been shown to demonstrate behaviors and brain patterns we once reserved exclusively for ourselves, with increasing evidence that they possess some sort of "inner lives" too... but what might that look like? How and why, indeed, did minds like this evolve? Searching for answers, philosopher and scientist Peter Godfrey-Smith turns to animals with remarkable intelligence, animals that diverged from our own ancestors long before even the Cambrian "explosion" of life, animals that some have called the closest we humans may ever get to encountering a truly alien mind: the octopus.
REVIEW: This is an interesting exploration of the evolutionary roots of brains and consciousness, a process that has led to two very different "solutions" in humans and cephalopods. To understand philosophical questions of awareness and what being a nonhuman is like, one must understand something about how humans and nonhumans came to be, the biological and environmental and social pressures that drove what was once a presumably content free-floating cell to transform over countless generations into the remarkably complex life forms with remarkably complex behaviors that we're familiar with today. Through fossil records, gene sequencing, experiments, and more, some truly mind-boggling answers have come to light, particularly in recent years - answers that, in true scientific fashion, lead to even more questions. It is difficult enough to put ourselves into the mind of another mammal, or even a bird, but the cephalopods are further removed from us on an evolutionary scale even than insects, and the intelligence they've developed may be that much further beyond our imagination, suited to entirely different bodies and lifestyles than anything remotely familiar to us. It makes for some interesting thought experiments, if nothing else.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (Frans de Waal) - My Review
The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy (Arik Kershenbaum) - My Review
Your Inner Fish (Neil Shubin) - My Review
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Friday, December 15, 2023
Friday, December 30, 2022
How to Be Perfect (Michael Schur)
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question
Michael Schur
Simon and Schuster
Nonfiction, Humorous Nonfiction/Media Reference/Philosophy/Sociology
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: When the quirky comedy show The Good Place debuted on NBC in 2016, following the recently-deceased Eleanor Shellstrop after she finds herself misplaced in the "Good Place" after a morally questionable life, it brought matters of ethics and morality into millions of living rooms. The struggle to define morality, what it means to be a good person (and even why one should strive to be good), is one humans have wrestled with since prehistory. In that time, we've domesticated wolves, reshaped the climate, sent space probes beyond the edge of the solar system, and decoded DNA, so one would think someone would've come up with an answer to this whole "what is 'good'?" ethical question by now. Well, they have - numerous answers, often contradictory, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Series creator Michael Schur relates the history of ethical theories and how they work (or sometimes fail to work) in practice, while also discussing his own struggles to define a personal moral code that's both fair and feasible.
The audiobook features cameos from several series stars and a few others.
REVIEW: The Good Place is one of the best shows, start to finish, I've seen. One of its many strengths was its ability to relate complex matters of ethics and morality in palatable ways, no doctorates required, showing how even the most flawed and seemingly irredeemable of people can learn and grow if given the tools and the chance. Somewhat remarkably in an America that has always skewed to an assumed Christian cultural root, the show explored ideas of right and wrong without resorting to religion as a backstop; though there is a metaphysical element in the whole series concept of souls and the Good and Bad places, the characters arrive at their conclusions without the carrot or stick of divine edict driving them. Much like the series, this book also avoids religion, which is - despite what many fundamentalists seem to insist - not a necessary component of morality. Delving into lessons from Aristotle, Kant, Sartre, and others, Schur gives a rough-sketch rundown of the basic ideas behind major schools of thought... all of which require some moderation for practice in a world that's a lot bigger, messier, and more complicated than any strict theory can accomodate. With those tools, he then shows how to approach various problems, from thought exercises like the trolley problem to practical applications such as returning shopping carts, as well as potential pitfalls, and (naturally) some callbacks to The Good Place. Throughout the book runs a strong vein of humor which, like in the show, helps keep the subject matter relatable. I found the whole thing both entertaining and thought-provoking, much like the series.
Examining one's own morality, developing and living by a code of ethics, is not something many of us have been encouraged to actively do. It's a process that is, by its very nature, never finished and requires constant fine-tuning through inevitable failures. There are no definitive and clear answers. There is no one-size-fits-all option. There is also a lot that is simply beyond our control, and it's all too tempting to just give up. In this book, Schur makes a strong argument for why we should make the effort anyway, whether or not there's a Good Place waiting for us at the end of it all.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) - My Review
Michael Schur
Simon and Schuster
Nonfiction, Humorous Nonfiction/Media Reference/Philosophy/Sociology
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: When the quirky comedy show The Good Place debuted on NBC in 2016, following the recently-deceased Eleanor Shellstrop after she finds herself misplaced in the "Good Place" after a morally questionable life, it brought matters of ethics and morality into millions of living rooms. The struggle to define morality, what it means to be a good person (and even why one should strive to be good), is one humans have wrestled with since prehistory. In that time, we've domesticated wolves, reshaped the climate, sent space probes beyond the edge of the solar system, and decoded DNA, so one would think someone would've come up with an answer to this whole "what is 'good'?" ethical question by now. Well, they have - numerous answers, often contradictory, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Series creator Michael Schur relates the history of ethical theories and how they work (or sometimes fail to work) in practice, while also discussing his own struggles to define a personal moral code that's both fair and feasible.
The audiobook features cameos from several series stars and a few others.
REVIEW: The Good Place is one of the best shows, start to finish, I've seen. One of its many strengths was its ability to relate complex matters of ethics and morality in palatable ways, no doctorates required, showing how even the most flawed and seemingly irredeemable of people can learn and grow if given the tools and the chance. Somewhat remarkably in an America that has always skewed to an assumed Christian cultural root, the show explored ideas of right and wrong without resorting to religion as a backstop; though there is a metaphysical element in the whole series concept of souls and the Good and Bad places, the characters arrive at their conclusions without the carrot or stick of divine edict driving them. Much like the series, this book also avoids religion, which is - despite what many fundamentalists seem to insist - not a necessary component of morality. Delving into lessons from Aristotle, Kant, Sartre, and others, Schur gives a rough-sketch rundown of the basic ideas behind major schools of thought... all of which require some moderation for practice in a world that's a lot bigger, messier, and more complicated than any strict theory can accomodate. With those tools, he then shows how to approach various problems, from thought exercises like the trolley problem to practical applications such as returning shopping carts, as well as potential pitfalls, and (naturally) some callbacks to The Good Place. Throughout the book runs a strong vein of humor which, like in the show, helps keep the subject matter relatable. I found the whole thing both entertaining and thought-provoking, much like the series.
Examining one's own morality, developing and living by a code of ethics, is not something many of us have been encouraged to actively do. It's a process that is, by its very nature, never finished and requires constant fine-tuning through inevitable failures. There are no definitive and clear answers. There is no one-size-fits-all option. There is also a lot that is simply beyond our control, and it's all too tempting to just give up. In this book, Schur makes a strong argument for why we should make the effort anyway, whether or not there's a Good Place waiting for us at the end of it all.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) - My Review
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