Showing titles in Consciousness & Thought

Combining ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology, Daniel Dennett leads the listener on a fascinating journey of inquiry, exploring such intriguing possibilities as: Can any of us really know what is going on in someone else's mind? What distinguishes the human mind from the minds of animals, especially those capable of complex behavior? If such animals, for instance, were magically given the power of language, would their communities evolve an intelligence as subtly discriminating as ours?

In one of the great ironies of the modern world, the science that was expected to solve life’s mysteries has done just the opposite. New discoveries have led to more unanswered questions, created deeper mysteries, and brought us to the brink of forbidden territory when it comes to explaining our origin and existence. New York Times best-selling author and 2018 Templeton Award nominee Gregg Braden crosses the traditional boundaries of science and spirituality to answer the timeless question at the core of our existence.

Osho, one of the best-known and most provocative spiritual teachers of our time, presents The Sutra of 42 Chapters—a scripture compiled in the first century C.E by a Chinese emperor. Two thousand five hundred years have passed since Buddha delivered the sutras on which this series is based.

It is time for us to learn a new way of thinking. The 21st century presents complex problems that require a wiser way of reasoning, one that recognises our current limitations, tolerates ambiguity and uncertainty, balances multiple perspectives, and bridges diverse areas of expertise. Whatever our age and experience, whether a NASA scientist or a school student, we will benefit from wielding our minds with insight, precision, social sensitivity and humility.ntial.

“A faithful translation is rare; a translation which preserves intact the original text is very rare; a perfect translation of Montaigne appears impossible. Yet Donald Frame has realized this feat. One does not seem to be reading a translation, so smooth and easy is the style; at each moment, one seems to be listening to Montaigne himself - the freshness of his ideas, the unexpected choice of words. Frame has kept everything.” (Andre Maurois, The New York Times Book Review)

The national bestseller chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 1991 is now available as an audiobook. The author of Brainstorms, Daniel C. Dennett replaces our traditional vision of consciousness with a new model based on a wealth of fact and theory from the latest scientific research.

We all have things we rely on going our way to help us feel calm and happy. Your partner waking up in a good mood. No traffic on the way to work. No queues at the supermarket. And no rain on your day off. But what happens when things don’t work out that way? We fall back on soothing habits. A trip to the cupboard for snacks. Scrolling on social media. A few beers or a couple of glasses of wine after a stressful day.

This is an audiobook about everything you were never taught at school. It's about how to understand your emotions, find and sustain love, succeed in your career, fail well and overcome shame and guilt. It's also about letting go of the myth of a perfect life in order to achieve genuine emotional maturity. Written in a hugely accessible, warm and humane style, The School of Life is the ultimate guide to the emotionally fulfilled lives we all long for - and deserve.

We spend vast amounts of time acquiring confidence in narrow technical fields: quadratic equations or bioengineering; economics or pole vaulting. But we overlook the primordial need to acquire a more free-ranging variety of confidence - one that can serve us across a range of tasks: speaking to strangers at parties, asking someone to marry us, suggesting a fellow passenger turn down their music, changing the world. This is a guidebook to confidence, why we lack it and how we can acquire more of it in our lives.

Have you always known you were meant for so much more, but don’t know why you aren’t living it yet? Meant for More is both an incredible story of one woman’s journey of discovery and awakening while being jam-packed full of bad--s fundamental truths that will blow your socks off...and transform how you operate in the world. Mia helps you to confidently create your own reality by accessing your innate power, shift your self-image, and clear the misconceptions and misunderstandings that have been getting in your way.

If the world really is ending, or at least expecting turbulent change, what kind of people will we need when it happens? Using the seven deadly sins as a playful framework, popular podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield considers how to garden our inner lives so we grow towards developing the spiritual core strength necessary for when things fall apart.

Best-selling historian and philosopher Will Durant devoted his entire life to studying the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. Here is a summation of Durant's work, as he presents the best of world history. Filled with Durant's renowned wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events in simple and exciting terms, it is a concise liberal arts education.

It is a scientific fact, which means we can measure it, we can assess it, and we can devise strategies to make ourselves happy and fulfilled human beings. Or so says, Professor Gad Saad, author of the national bestseller The Parasitic Mind and popular host of The Saad Truth podcast. Professor Saad roams through the scientific studies, the wisdom of ancient philosophy and religion, and his extraordinary personal experience as a refugee from war-torn Lebanon turned academic celebrity to provide one of the most provocative, helpful, and entertaining listens you are likely to encounter.

Jay Garfield, a leading expert on Buddhist philosophy, offers a brief and radically clear account of an idea that at first might seem frightening but that promises to liberate us and improve our lives, our relationships, and the world. Drawing on Indian and East Asian Buddhism, Daoism, Western philosophy, and cognitive neuroscience, Garfield shows why it is perfectly natural to think you have a self—and why it actually makes no sense at all and is even dangerous. Most importantly, he explains why shedding the illusion that you have a self can make you a better person.

A new edition of a classic work that originated the "embodied cognition" movement and was one of the first to link science and Buddhist practices.

One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks where the self comes from - and how our selves can exist in the minds of others. I Am a Strange Loop argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the "strange loop" - a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains. The most central and complex symbol in your brain is the one called "I". The "I" is the nexus in our brain, one of many symbols seeming to have free will and to have gained the paradoxical ability to push particles around, rather than the reverse.

In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"

As a neuroscientist, Marjorie Woollacott had no doubts that the brain was a purely physical entity controlled by chemicals and electrical pulses. When she experimented with meditation for the first time, however, her entire world changed. Woollacott's journey through years of meditation has made her question the reality she built her career upon and has forced her to ask what human consciousness really is.

What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? These questions today are among the most hotly debated issues among scientists and philosophers. Philosopher David J. Chalmers offers a cogent analysis of this heated debate as he unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain.

This book is an invitation to cultivate stillness and contentment in an ever-changing, uncertain world. Drawing on a thousand years of Japanese literature, culture and philosophical ideas to explore the true nature of time and what it means to be human, Kokoro - which mysteriously translates as 'heart-mind' - is a meditation on living well. Join Japanologist Beth Kempton on this life-changing pilgrimage far beyond the tourist trail, to uncover the soul of the country, its people and its deeply buried wisdom.