Announcing The MIT Press will publish Out of the Cave: A Natural Philosophy of Mind and Knowing by Mark Johnson and Don M. Tucker in fall 2021. From a philosopher and a neuropsychologist comes an interdisciplinary theory of knowing as embodied, embedded, enacted, and emotionally-based. Plato’s allegory of the cave trapped us in the illusion that the mind is separate from the body, from the natural and physical world. Knowledge had to be eternal and absolute. With recent advances in neurobiological and computational sciences, we now understand that what we think and how we think depends on our brains and bodies as they operate in our physical, social, and cultural environments. Everything we experience, know, feel, value, and do results from bodily processes of which we are seldom aware. Mind and self are inescapably rooted in motivational systems controlled by values and emotions tied to survival and well-being. Knowing arises from these fundamental biological values, which make possible and shape our abstract conceptualization and reasoning. Mark Johnson is Professor of Philosophy and Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Emeritus, at the University of Oregon. He is author of The Aesthetics of Meaning and Thought: The Bodily Roots of Philosophy, Science, Morality, and Art (2018), Embodied Mind, Meaning, and Reason: How Our Bodies Give Rise to Understanding (2017) and Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science (2015). He is co-author, with George Lakoff, of Metaphors We Live By (Chicago, 2003) and Philosophy in the Flesh: The…
The MIT Press releases Out of the Cave: A Natural History of Mind and Knowing by Mark Johnson and Don Tucker on August 17. What do we know, and how do we know it? I can’t think of any more essential question to the human experience. Or to the scientific method. Objectivity and subjectivity. Thoughts and emotions. Big ideas. Mark Johnson and Don Tucker responded to my… [Read More]
Though going to a brick-and-mortar bookstore has been something many of us missed dearly this past year, slowly they are reopening in most parts of the country. While it may be safe to head inside your local indie bookstore, heading to the romance section feels like an activity that needs to be done in a baseball hat, sunglasses, and perhaps a fake mustache. I won’t… [Read More]
There’s a new kind of first-person narrative nonfiction book growing in popularity, and it is moving away from traditional commercial memoir as “misery lit” following a single template of story structure, the hero’s journey. We’re into the twenty-twenties now, and I see a pattern emerging among these new kinds of nonfiction books: a distinctive narrator’s voice, expository information about a subject matter separate from the… [Read More]
Red Shoes Writing Retreat on Lake of the Woods will inspire your creative writing in a place where the natural landscape and local culture offer both stimulation and serenity. We’ll gather from September 26-October 2 to write, relax, and explore the art, history, and culture of the Lake of the Woods area in northern Minnesota. Ride a tandem bike, take a boat ride, taste walleye,… [Read More]
You can enter to win a free copy of Margot Bloomstein’s new book, Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap, by leaving a comment on this blog post. Tell us what brand you trust and why. You’ll then be entered into a random drawing to be held on Saturday, May 8, 2021. One lucky winner will be sent a free… [Read More]