100 Books Like The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox

The issues of free will and consciousness are, to my limited mind, inextricably linked. And so, while Dennett somewhat overpromised and underdelivered with his well-known Consciousness Explained (tremendously hard not to underdeliver with a title like that) here I think he’s much more on the money. I think of all the books that I’ve read which address, either directly or tangentially, the issue of how the mind works, this is the one that gave me the clearest new insight into how we might think about, well, thinking. Dennett is a fine thinker and an excellent communicator but he tends to lose nuance when he goes combative. This is one of his gentler books, and all the better for it.

V. S. Ramachandran is a gifted experimentalist and writer who does not hesitate to pursue deep and important questions about our minds. Rather than employing expensive imaging or large sample sizes, he is more likely to use a cardboard box, an old stereopticon, or a rubber hand in his experiments. 

His creativity in finding concrete ways to test seemingly vague but interesting claims about our minds has led to several breakthroughs, in our understanding of phantom limbs and our ability to treat phantom pain, and also in our study of synesthesia—cases in which people see numbers as having colors, for example.

As I can attest, he is able to transmit to his students the idea that pursuing scientific questions can be thrilling, fulfilling, and so much fun that you can’t wait to get to work in the morning.

Bookshelves groan under the weight of highly skilled science communicators, and through them those of us with no specialist knowledge can learn about evolution, quantum mechanics, neuroscience et al, and then bore people to death with our newfound knowledge. There is, however, a world of difference between the things science discovers and the stories we tell about these discoveries. I love this book because it makes the reader do the hard yards, thinking not just about the breathless new discoveries, but also the very nature of this knowledge, and hence its limits.

I think glorious failures are far more interesting than modest successes, and let’s face it, any book that attempts to explain consciousness is bound to fail on so many levels. What I love about Hofstadter’s work is its boldness and reach. He’s as happy in the world of abstract metaphor as he is speaking of science or mathematics, and understands that we need new metaphors of consciousness just as badly as we need new scientific models. And even though he flounders at times, it kind of doesn’t matter, because of the sheer energy and verve of his quest: sort of Don Quixote with a calculator. For the math geeks amongst you, there’s an unusually clear and careful discussion of the incompleteness theorem as well. What’s not to like?

The cover illustrations for The Green Umbrella captivated my attention. It shows a playful elephant holding a green umbrella floating in the rain, jumping through puddles. The world that elephant lives in feels both foreign and familiar. On his rainy day walk, he encounters a hedgehog, cat, bear, rabbit, who all claim the green umbrella as their own. Each of them using it for a delightfully inventive purpose. As in all great kids' books, the message of sharing is tenderly disguised. The painted collage illustrations are textured with gorgeous details.

If forced to pick a favorite book, I’d probably pick this one. Set in Paris and so well crafted, it’s the ultimate demonstration of how shared ideas about beauty bind us together.

“Old-souled” Paloma is only twelve and can not only recognize but also aptly describe their superficiality. Her point of view alternates with Renée, the luxury building’s invisible yet brilliant concierge. Together, they demonstrate how seemingly different people can galvanize around life’s ineffable elements.  

Their surprising friendship is catalyzed by a lovely Japanese tenant who sees beyond the surface and invites them into his world where he celebrates the quiet, elegant offerings overlooked by so many.

The bonds of these international, inter-generational friends make perfect sense as you grow to know and love the characters, and I relish how they become less isolated, frustrated, and disappointed through their connection. Yet as we’re seduced by their life of the… show more.

This book stands as a glaring reminder of how we have to advocate for ourselves and our health. This book painfully illustrates the corruption of our health"care" system. Summary: an intriguing look at how influence and reductionism play into modern science, including insight into the vitamin supplement industry and how medical science is caught up in a reductionist paradigm.

I loved how this book literally links the surface of modern organizations with the depths of the human art of storytelling. Stories have been reservoirs of knowledge since times immemorial. Even now, although superficially supplanted by rational procedures and even computer code, it is in the stories collected and told about organizations that the richness of meaning can be found, which can help to understand and change them for the better.

I enjoyed how this book presents ideas that are both profound and serious in a way that is exceptionally readable and, in a way, liberating. I thought: wow! What an eye-opener! The superficial reductionism of the contemporary organization is just a shell and within lies hidden so much wisdom. It germinates. 

This selection of essays focuses on the important concept of “downward causation” (a designation first employed by Donald T. Campbell), that is, the idea that, in addition to the “upward” causal influence of parts on wholes, which is the focus of stereotypical (bottom-up) reductionist views, wholes also exercise top-down emergent causal influences on their parts.

This has been a vital recurring issue and an identifying principle in most theories of emergence. Campbell and Mark H. Bickhard provide the culminating chapter in this book.

This is Ian’s first past life book and in my view his best of many.

Wanting to have his own experience of a past life before writing the book Ian came to me for a past life regression to discover if past lives were real. He regressed into a past life of being tortured by having his fingernails removed that totally convinced him that the experience was real.

The book has a summary of the work of many pioneers in past life regression and their books and also future life regression. Ian presents information in a rational way and has done amazing research to dismiss much of skeptic’s criticism in early past books.