Volume I. Common
Ground: Nature, Science, and History as Sources of Unity
Part I. Human
Worldviews: Balancing Unity and Diversity
Major Influences on this Book
Calder, Nigel. 1983. Timescale: An Atlas of the Fourth Dimension.
New York. Viking. An amazing book about when things happened in
time. Includes a narrative of major events since the Big Bang, as
well as an alphabetical glossary that goes into more detail.
Inevitably dated, but amazingly comprehensive. Calder’s estimates of
many dates have held up amazingly well.
Chaisson, Eric. 1981. Cosmic Dawn. The Origins of Matter and Life.
Boston. Little, Brown. A great book about our cosmic context.
Chaisson, Eric. 2001. Cosmic Evolution. The Rise of Complexity in
Nature. Cambridge, M.A. Harvard University Press. Discusses the
rise of complexity in nature in terms of free energy and
thermodynamics. Tightly reasoned. Some math.
Chaisson, Eric. 1987. The Life Era. Cosmic Selection and Cosmic
Evolution. New York. Atlantic Monthly Press. A sequel to
Cosmic Dawn. Nice discussions of the history of cosmic evolution
ideas, as well as the interplay of entropy and the growth of complex
systems.
Christian, David. 2004. Maps of Time. An Introduction to Big
History. A great book which puts human history in the context of
deep time and natural history. It actually was not a major influence
on my book, but it would have been if it had come out earlier.
Coveny, Peter; & Highfield, Roger. 1995. Frontiers of Complexity.
The Search for Order in a Complex World. New York. Fawcett
Columbine. Probably the best book I have read about complexity
theories.
Cvalli-Sforza, Luigi L. 1995. The Great Human Diasporas. The
History of Diversity and Evolution. Reading, M.A. Helix Books. A
summary of the thought an amazing integrative thinker. Explains
human genetic diversity, and how it can be used to reconstruct
prehistoric migrations. Discusses cultural evolution, the problems
with the idea of race, and the history of languages. Translated from
Italian, which may be why the prose can be awkward. Fascinating,
nonetheless.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal
Experience. New York. HarperPerennial. A classic. Explains the
idea of flow; that satisfaction results from engagement in rewarding
activity.
Cziko, Gary. 1995. Without Miracles. Universal Selection Theory
and the Second Darwinian Revolution. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press.
Argues for the universality of the processes of blind variation and
selective retention. Relies on it a bit too much, in my opinion, but
a unique reference for this sort of idea. Great bibliography.
Davies, Paul. 1992. The Mind of God. The Scientific Basis for a
Rational World. New York. Touchstone. A wonderful book about the
light that science sheds on big questions, like why the universe
exists, foundations of math, and the limits of knowledge.
Dawkins, Richard. 1976. The Selfish Gene. New York. Oxford.
This is the first and best book to popularize the idea that
organisms have evolved to benefit their genes, not individuals or
species. It also introduced the idea of memes. The arguments of this
book have often been misunderstood by people who have not read it,
which is a shame because it is a classic of clear science writing.
Diamond, Jared. 1999. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human
Societies. New York. W.W. Norton. A brilliant, ground-breaking
book, showing how environment, geography, and agriculture may have
shaped the different paths of societies.
Gell-Mann, Murray. 1994. The Quark and the Jaguar. Adventures in
the Simple and the Complex. New York. Freeman. Gell-Mann is the
co-discoverer of the quark structure of matter, and is now working
in complexity theory. Brilliant discussion of fundamental physics,
complexity, adaptive systems, and the relationships between them.
Goodenough, Ursula. 1998. The Sacred Depths of Nature. New
York. Oxford University Press. A great book about nature and
spirituality from a biologist. Sections explaining science alternate
with thoughts on the relation of science to spiritual experience.
The explanations of biological processes are wonderful.
Halpern, Diane. Thought and Knowledge. An Introduction to
Critical Thinking. The idea that one’s mental prowess can be
improved is underappreciated, and good how-to books are rare. This
is the best one I know; covering memory, critical thinking, decision
making, and creativity.
Hammond, Alan. Which World? Scenarios for the 21st Century. A
brilliantly balanced book about the trends that are most important
today, and the directions they could lead.
Kutter, Siegfried. The Universe and Life. A textbook covering
the evolution of the universe and life on Earth. Very well done.
Laszlo, Ervin. Evolution. The Grand Synthesis. 1987. Boston.
New Science Library. Laszlo is one of the world’s premier systems
theorists. This book is a good discussion of how systems emerge in
the history of the universe, and how that history ties together
diverse fields.
Lao Tzu. Tao te Ching. Many translations of this world
classic are available, and interesting to compare. Like many others,
I was thunderstruck the first time I read it.
Morrison, Phillip; & Morrison, Phylis. 1994. Powers of Ten.
New York. Scientific American Library. Based on an earlier book
called Cosmic View, by Kees Boeke. Starting with a picture of
a couple in a park, zooms up in a series of tenfold increases in
field of view to the largest scales of the universe, and then down
to the subatomic level.
Ornstein, Robert. 1972. The Psychology of Consciousness. New
York. Viking. Discusses how the mind can be opened to see wholes,
and focused to see parts. Introduced me to the blind men and the
elephant story.
Trefil, James; & Hazen, Robert. 1991. Science Matters. Achieving
Scientific Literacy. New York. Anchor Books. An amazingly
concise summary of the findings of modern science for laypeople who
want to brush up.
Trefil, James; & Hazen, Robert. 2004. The Sciences: An Integrated
Approach. Fourth Edition. New York. Wiley. A textbook for
general science courses. Basically an expanded version of Science
Matters. Very useful.
Rheingold, Howard. 1990. The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog:
Access to Tools and Ideas for the Twenty-First Century.
Harpercollins. This book, and its predecessors, is a compendium of
useful and interesting resources. A must-see that should be updated.
Wilson, Edward O. 1998. Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge.
New York. Knopf. The most recent and best known book to argue for
science as a unifier of human knowledge. Wilson is a brilliant
scientist and synthesizer of previously unlinked ideas. Sees human
works and cultures as more a subset of biology than I do. Still,
Wilson is eloquent, and always worth reading.
Part II. Patterns Across Nature: A Framework
Ball, Phillip K. 1999. The Self-Made Tapestry. Pattern Formation
in Nature. New York. Oxford. Nice illustrations. Fairly
technical.
Bateson, Gregory. 1979. Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity.
New York. Bantam. Discusses “Metapatterns” that connect systems at
various levels, and ways of opening our mind to see them. Some find
Bateson profound, but I find him unnecessarily abstruse. He talks
around ideas, perhaps trying to point to reality rather than explain
it. I wish he would try more explaining. Often condescending, with a
1970's systems guru tone, but sometimes insightful.
Bertalanfly, Ludwig. 1968. General System Theory. Foundations,
Development, Applications. New York. G. Braziller. One of the
basic books in systems theory. Like many of them, it isn’t easy to
read.
Boulding, Kenneth. 1978. Ecodynamics. A New Theory of Societal
Evolution. Beverly Hills. Sage. Boulding was a leader in general
systems thinking. He was an open minded, big-hearted, who jumped
from one topic to another in a way that can be hard to follow.
Campbell, Jeremy. 1982. Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy,
Language and Life. New York. Simon and Schuster. An interesting
and well-written book about information theory, entropy, and
complexity in nature. Probably dated now.
Capra, Fritjof. 1996. The Web of Life: A New Scientific
Understanding of Living Systems. New York. Anchor. A clearly
written introduction to systems and complexity theory, with an
application to environmentalism and spirituality. Touts holism as a
panacea, but well worth reading.
Davidson, Mark. 1983. Uncommon Sense. The Life and Thought of
Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Father of General Systems Theory. Los
Angeles. J.P. Tarcher, Inc. Most books on systems theory are either
nearly impenetrable, or presented in a strange, disjointed and
rambling way. This book is somewhat gushing and shallow, but it is a
quick and easy introduction to Bertalannffy, a truly broad-minded
thinker.
Davies, Paul. 1988. The Cosmic Blueprint: New Discoveries in
Nature’s Creative Ability to Order the Universe. New York. Simon
& Schuster. Davies is a physicist and a great science writer -
Clear, accessible, open- minded, and prolific. This is a good book
on complexity and pattern formation in the universe.
Flake, Gary W. 1998. The Computational Beauty of Nature. Computer
Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation.
Cambridge, MA. MIT Press. Brilliant, but fairly technical.
Gleick, James. 1987. Chaos. Making a New Science. New York.
Viking. The classic book that made chaos theory a household term.
Hildebrandt, Stefan; & Tromba, Anthony. 1996. The Parsimonious
Universe: Shape and Form in the Natural World. New York.
Copernicus. A book about how nature forms elegant patterns by
finding lowest energy states. Slightly difficult.
Hillis, Daniel. 1998. The Pattern on the Stone. The Simple Ideas
that Make Computers Work. New York. Basic Books. Short,
readable, and valuable.
Johnson, George. 1995. Fire in the Mind. Science, Faith, and the
Search for Order. New York. Knopf. A discussion of basic science
and complexity theory by one of the best science writers.
Kauffman, Stuart. 1995. At Home in the Universe. The Search for
Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. New York. Oxford
University Press. By one of the pioneers in this field. Slightly
strange writing style.
Lewin, Roger. 1992. Complexity. Life at the Edge of Chaos.
New York. Macmillan. Good, basic book with lots of interviews.
Pagels, Heinz. 1988. The Dreams of Reason. The Computer and the
Rise of the Sciences of Complexity. New York. Simon and
Schuster. Pagels was a scientist who wrote brilliant, accurate books
about science, but he was tragically killed in a mountaineering
accident soon after this book came out.
Siegfried, Tom. 2000. The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum
Computing to M Theory–The New Physics of Information. New York.
John Wiley and Sons. How information theory keeps popping up in
physics.
Stevens, Peter S. 1979. Patterns in Nature. Little Brown. A
classic, with many illustrations.
Waddington, C.H. 1977. Tools for Thought: How to Understand and
Apply the Latest Scientific Techniques of Problem Solving. New
York. Basic Books. A quirky book about mental tools. Someone should
write an updated version.
Waldrop, Mitchell. 1992. Complexity: The Emerging Science at the
Edge of Order and Chaos. New York. Simon and Schuster. Another
good book on complexity from the early 1990's.
Wilber, Ken. 1995. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality. The Spirit of
Evolution. Wilber attempts to unite meditative practices and
spiritual awareness with a holistic vision of science. Introduced me
to Koestler’s idea of holons. Wilber sometimes borders on the flaky
and new agey, and he is always putting pictures of himself on the
covers of his books. Still, he is undeniably brilliant and well
informed.
von Baeyer, Hans Christian. 1998. Warmth Disperses and Time
Passes. The History of Heat. New York. Modern Library. A good
book about entropy and the second law of thermodynamics.
Part III. Natural History: A Brief Look at the Evolution of our
Worlds
See bibliography for Volume II
Part IV. Seeking Common Ground; Finding our Place in Nature
Buzan, Tony. 1984. Make the Most of Your Mind. New York.
Fireside. A book about improving ones mind. Has a motivational
speaker sort of tone, which is not for me, but the information is
pretty accurate. If you want something more in depth, try Diane
Halpern’s Thought and Knowledge, referenced above.
Diagram Group. 1993. Collins Gem Encyclopedia. Glasgow.
HarperCollins. A whole world of facts, crammed into a tiny square
book. I used to carry it around in my coat pocket, when I first
started writing this book.
Encyclopedia Britannica Editors. The Encyclopedia Britannica.
Encyclopedia Britannica Corporation. Typically, I don’t like this
encyclopedia, because it is often dense and pretentious, with
articles that read as though they were written for scholars. The
idea that it is a good encyclopedia for young people is ridiculous.
However, sometimes it comes in handy, especially for biographies.
Get the CD-Rom version.
Espenshade, Edward (Ed.) 2000. Goode’s World Atlas. Skokie,
IL. Rand McNally. Everybody should have a copy of this atlas, which
contains an amazing amount of information on natural features,
natural resources, climate, environments, and political boundaries
around the world.
Higbee, Kenneth. 1988. Your Memory: How it Works, How to Improve
It. New York. Prentice Hall. A good book, written by
psychologist specializing in memory.
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation.
Redmond, WA. This CD-ROM encyclopedia is a bit more detailed than
the World Book, but more accessible than the Britannica.
Rohmann, Chris. 1999. A World of Ideas: A Dictionary of Important
Theories, Concepts, Beliefs, and Thinkers. New York. Ballantine.
An indispensable book.
Van Doren, Charles. 1992. A History of Knowledge. Past, Present,
and Future. New York. Ballantine Books. An informative book, but
it focuses mainly on the west. And I thought my book had a grandiose
title.
World Book, Inc. The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago. World
Book, Inc. I’m a big fan of the World Book. It’s almost always the
best place to start if you don’t know much about a subject. It is
well organized and user friendly. My only complaint is that it
glosses over ugly events in history. Of course, it is a basic
encyclopedia, and you will need to go to the bigger ones to find
more in depth information. But for young people, or those who like
to look things up quickly and move on, this is the one to have. The
print edition is nicer than the CD-ROM, because it has more
illustrations, but of course the CD-ROM is far cheaper and more
easily updated.
Volume II. Our Place in Nature
Book I: The Human World
Part I. Fundamentals: The Discovery of Universal Laws
Atkins, Peter W. 1995. The Periodic Kingdom. New York. Basic
Books. A good, simple book by a chemist about the trends and
properties of the elements.
Ball, Phillip. 1994. Designing the Molecular World: Chemistry at
the Frontier. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press. A more
in-depth book about recent research in chemistry.
Crease & Mann. 1986. The Second Creation. Makers of the
Revolution in 20th Century Physics. New York. MacMillan.
Chronicles twentieth century physics, focusing on scientific culture
and personalities. Based on many interviews with top physicists.
Emiliani, Cesare. 1988. The Scientific Companion: Exploring the
Physical World with Facts, Figures, and Formulas. New York.
Wiley. A concise, no-nonsense guide to basic facts and numbers in
science.
Ferris, Timothy. 1988. Coming of Age in the Milky Way. New
York. Morrow. A true classic. A masterful history of astronomy and
physics from ancient times to the present.
Feynman, Richard. 1965. The Character of Physical Law.
Cambridge, MA. MIT Press. Feynman was brilliant and quirky, and so
are these lectures on physics.
Feynman, Richard. 1985. Q.E.D. The Strange Theory of Light and
Matter. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press. A transcript
of talks Feynman gave to a lay audience, explaining quantum
electrodynamics.
Feynman, Richard. 1995. Six Easy Pieces. Essentials of Physics
Explained by its most Brilliant Teacher. Reading, MA. Perseus
Books. Lectures from a general physics course Feynman taught at
Caltech. Excellent.
Feynman, Richard. 1995. Six Not-So-Easy Pieces. Einstein’s
Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time. Reading, MA. Perseus
Books. More extracts from Feynman’s general physics course.
Green, Michael. 1999. The Elegant Universe. Superstrings, Hidden
Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. New York.
Norton. This is a very well-written book that clarifies the latest
ideas on superstrings and how they might be a way of unifying
quantum mechanics and general relativity. By a big player in the
field.
Gribbin, John. 1995. Schrödinger’s Kittens and the Search for
Reality. Boston. Little, Brown & Company. Discusses the strange
implications of quantum theory.
Guth, Alan. 1997. The Inflationary Universe. The Quest for a New
Theory of Cosmic Origins. Reading, MA. Addison-Wesley. An
excellent of the theory of inflation, by the scientist who
originated it.
Hewitt, Paul G. 1999. Conceptual Physics. Menlo Park, CA.
Addison-Wesley. A high-school level textbook on basic physics, which
is actually entertaining as well as enlightening. To get a good
grasp the basic ideas of physics, this is probably the best place to
start.
Stewart, Ian; & Golubitsky, Martin. 1992. Fearful Symmetry: Is
God a Geometer? Cambridge, MA. Blackwell. Entertaining
discussion of symmetry in physics.
Weinberg, Stephen. 1992. Dreams of a Final Theory. New York.
Pantheon Books. A leading physicist discusses prospects for
unification of fundamental laws.
Zee, Anthony. 1986. Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in
Modern Physics. New York. MacMillan. Another good book on the
deep symmetries in physics.
Part II. Cosmos
Barrow, John. 1994. Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking, and Being.
Boston. Little, Brown. One of the few books discussing a
mind-boggling issue: what is mathematics, and where does it “come
from”?
Barrow, John. 1991. Theories of Everything: The Quest for
Ultimate Explanation. New York. Fawcett Columbine. Discussion of
the possibilites and limitations of a “theory of everything”,
covering algorithmic complexity, foundations of mathematic,
symmetry, and much more. Sometimes turgid.
Berry, Thomas; & Swimme, Brian. 1994. The Universe Story: From
the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era. San Francisco.
HarperSanFrancisco. The story of the unfolding universe, told by a
theologian and a cosmologist interested in spirituality. Tries to
frame things in mytho-poetic language, which isn’t really for me.
Worth reading, but read more mainstream books on the subject first.
Chaisson, Eric; & McMillan, Steve. 2005. Astronomy Today.
Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall. An excellent textbook
on basic astronomy. Good illustrations.
Devlin, Keith. 1994. Mathematics: The Science of Patterns: The
Search for Order in Life, Mind, and the Universe. New York.
Scientific American Library. A good, illustrated work on mathematics
and its practitioners. Many of the illustrated books in the
Scientific American Library series are very good, but some are a bit
difficult for beginners.
Ferris, Timothy. 1998. The Whole Shebang. A State of the
Universe(s) Report. New York. Touchstone. A good book about
modern cosmology, by one of the best science writers.
Gribbin, John. 1996. Companion to the Cosmos. Boston. Little,
Brown and Company. A short, alphabetical encyclopedia of cosmology
and fundamental physics. I found it invaluable.
Hogan, John. 1998. The Little Book of the Big Bang: A Cosmic
Primer. New York. Copernicus. Clear and concise.
Morris, Richard. 2002. The Big Questions: Probing the Promise and
Limits of Science. New York. Times Books. The first book to read
about the borders between physics and metaphysics.
Silk, Joseph. 2001. The Big Bang. A comprehensive book about
cosmology and the evolution of the physical universe. I find Silk’s
style rather difficult.
Silk, Joseph. 1997. A Short History of the Universe. New
York. Scientific American Library. Illustrated book about the
history of the universe. Easier than The Big Bang, but not as up to
date.
Weinberg, Steven. 1993. The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of
the Origin of the Universe. A classic book on the big bang.
Concise, but scientifically uncompromising. Mostly discusses the
later portions of the big bang.
Part III. Sun and Earth
Dixon, Dougal; Jenkins, Ian; Moody, Richard T.J; Zhuralev, Andrey
Yu. 2001. Atlas of Life on Earth. An indispensable
illustrated book explaining the history of the earth, its continents
and oceans, and the life on and in them.
Henbest, Nigel; & Couper, Heather.1994. A Guide to the Galaxy.
New York. Cambridge University Press. Beautiful illustrations
showing our place in the Milky Way.
Lovelock, James. 2000. Gaia. A New Look at Life on Earth.
Oxford. Oxford University Press. An explanation of the Gaia theory,
by one of its originators.
McPhee, John. 2000. Annals of the Former World. New York.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. A compilation of three good books on
geology, by an excellent writer.
Stanley, Stephen. 2005. Earth System History. New York. W.H.
Freeman. A well-illustrated and well-written textbook on geological
history.
Tarbuck, Edward J; & Lutgens, Frederick. 2005. Earth: An
Introduction to Physical Geology. Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Pearson/Prentice Hall. A nice textbook on geology.
Van Andel, Tjeerd. 1994. New Views on an Old Planet. A History of
Global Change. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. A
rigorous, but entertaining, look at various aspects of geological
and climatological history.
Wiccander, Reed; & Monroe, James. 2000. Historical Geology.
Evolution of Earth and Life Through Time. Pacific Grove, CA.
Brooks/Cole. A good textbook on the evolution of the earth.
Part IV. Life
Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New
York. Basic Books. A classic book about game theory and how it
explains the stability (and instability) of cooperative behavior.
Barlowe, Connie (Ed). 1991. From Gaia to Selfish Genes: Selected
Writings in the Life Sciences. Cambridge, MA. MIT Press. A nice
compilation of the very different views of leading biologists.
Campbell, Neil; & Reece, Jane. 2002. Biology. San Francisco.
Benjamin Cummings. This amazingly comprehensive textbook is by far
the leading textbook for one-year introductory biology courses. It
is really excellent, but really big and detailed. I would start with
a smaller textbook for an overview. Neil Campbell, the principal
author, tragically died young not long ago.
Hoageland, Mahlon; & Dodson, Bert. 1995. The Way Life Works.
New York. Times Books. An excellent collaboration between a
biologist and a cartoonist, explaining the basics of biology in an
entertaining way.
Margulis, Lynn; & Schwartz, Karlene. 2002. Five Kingdoms. An
Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth. New York. Henry
Holt. A classic book offering short descriptions of the major phyla
on earth.
Margulis, Lynn; & Sagan, Dorian. 1997. Microcosmos: Four Billion
Years of Evolution from our Microbial Ancestors. Berkeley.
University of California Press. Covers the early evolution of single
celled organisms, and their effect on the earth’s environment.
Ridley, Matt. 1999. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23
Chapters. New York. Harper Collins. A survey of the human
genome, with each chapter covering a different chromosome.
Ricklifs, Robert. Nature’s Economy.
Sigmund, Karl. 1993. Games of Life. Explorations in Ecology,
Evolution, and Behavior. Oxford, UK. Oxford University Press. A
very good book about chaos, self-organization, and game theory in
evolution. Quite funny.
Starr, Cecie; & Taggart, Ralph. 2004. Biology: The Unity and
Diversity of Life. Belmont, CA. Brooks/Cole. An excellent
biology textbook. Not as in depth or difficult as Campbell’s.
Tudge, Colin. 2000. The Variety of Life: A Survey and Celebration
of all the Creatures that have ever Lived. Oxford. Oxford
University Press. A guide to the branches of the tree of life. Tudge
is an entertaining writer, and the drawings are excellent.
Whitfield, Philip. 1993. From So Simple a Beginning: The Book of
Evolution. New York. Macmillan. Nice illustrated book about
evolution.
Wilson, Edward O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. Cambridge, MA.
Harvard/Belknap. A beautifully written book explaining the basics of
evolution, ecology, and biodiversity, and the importance of all
three.
Part V. Nerves, Brains, and Minds
Nervous Systems and Evolution
Dawkins, Marian S. 1993. Through our Eyes Only? The Search for
Animal Consciousness. New York. Oxford. Discusses what animals
might feel, and the its ethical implications.
Dowling, John E. 1998. Creating Mind. How the Brain Works.
New York. Norton. A concise book explaining the basics of brain
function. Sometimes awkward writing style, but there are few other
books that cover this territory with such a good balance of rigor
and simplicity.
Carter, Rita. 1998. Mapping the Mind. Berkeley, CA.
University of California Press. A really excellent illustrated book
surveying recent research on brain architecture and function.
Gould, James L.; & Gould, Carol G. 1994. The Animal Mind. New
York. Scientific American Library. Another nice book from Scientific
American, about the impressive cognitive feats some animals are
capable of.
Griffin, Donald. 1992. Animal Minds. Chicago. University of
Chicago Press. Donald Griffin, the discoverer of echolocation in
bats, has long been an advocate of the idea that animals are much
smarter than most scientists think.
Jastrow, Robert. 1981. The Enchanted Loom. Mind in the Universe.
New York. Simon and Schuster. Puts the evolution of minds and brains
in the context of the evolving universe. Getting old, but well worth
reading.
Cognition and Consciousness
Baars, Bernard. 1997. In the Theater of Consciousness. The
Workspace of The Mind New York. Oxford.
Chalmers, David. The Puzzle of Conscious Experience.
Scientific American Article
Churchland, Paul. The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul
Damaisio, Antonio. 1994. Descartes’ Error. Emotion, Reason, and
the Human Brain. New York. Putnam
Dennett, Daniel. 1991. Consciousness Explained. Boston:
Little, Brown. Dennett is a great writer, and full of fascinating
ideas, but this book is as smug as its title. He argues that
consciousness is a recent installation of mental software, based on
memes and language. This is probably part of the story, but I find
his theory rather contrived; hardly solving all the problems that he
claims it does. I find his intellectual self-satisfaction maddening,
but this is still a good read.
Dennett, Daniel. 1996. Kinds of Minds. Toward and Understanding
of Consciousness. New York. Basic Books.
Donald, Merlin. 1991. Origins of the Modern Mind. Three Stages in
the Evolution of Culture and Cognition. An important theory of
the human mind, taking account of culture and external storage of
information. Unfortunately, I find its style a little dry and
difficult.
Gardner, Howard. 1985. The Mind’s New Science. A History of the
Cognitive Revolution. New York. Basic Books.
Hofstadter, Douglas; & Dennett, Daniel. 1981. The Minds I.
Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul. New York. Basic
Books.
Johnson-Laird, Philip. The Computer and the Mind
Langer, Ellen. Mindfulness
Martindale, Colin. Cognitive Psychology. A Neural Network
Approach.
Ornstein, Robert; Thompson, Richard F; & Macauley, David. The
Amazing Brain
Ornstein, Robert. The Evolution of Consciousness
Pinker, Steven. 1994. The Language Instinct. New York.
HarperPerennial. One of the best non-fiction books I have ever read.
Nobody is a clearer or more entertaining explainer of tough ideas
than Pinker. Argues persuasively that language is a human instinct.
Pinker, Steven. 1997. How the Mind Works. New York. W.W.
Norton & Co. Another beautiful book by Pinker. Mind as a
computational system of modules designed by natural selection.
Rather far to the nature side of the nature/nurture debate, in my
opinion, but still the best book I know on cognitive science.
Sternberg, Robert J. In Search of the Human Mind.
Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology
Angier, Natalie. 1999. Woman: An Intimate Geography. Boston.
Houghton Mifflin.
Barash, David. 1979. The Whisperings Within. New York. Harper
& Row. A well-written, entertaining introduction to sociobiology.
Not as dated as one might think.
Barkow, Jerome; Cosmides, Leda; & Tooby, John. 1992. The Adapted
Mind. Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. New
York. Oxford.
Trivers, Robert. Social Evolution.
Wilson, Edward O. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis.
Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal. The New Science of Evolutionary
Psychology.
Book II: The Human World
Part I: Biology and Early Culture
Human Evolution
Cvalli-Sforza, Luigi L; Menozzi, Paolo; & Piazza, Alberto. 1994. The
History and Geography of Human Genes. A technical summary of human
genetic diversity. Dense, but important and enlightening.
Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press.
Leakey, Richard. The Origin of Humankind
Lewin, Roger. Human Evolution
Peters, David. From the Beginning. The Story of Human Evolution.
Culture
Archaeology
Burenhult, Göran (Ed). 1993. The Illustrated History of Humankind.
San Francisco. Harper. A spectacular five-volume set of illustrated
books with contributions by leading scholars. Wonderful.
Fagan, Brian. World Prehistory: A Brief Introduction
Hawkes, Jaquetta. Atlas of Early Man.
Pfeiffer, John. The Creative Explosion.
Anthropology
Blackmore, Susan. 1999. The Meme Machine. New York. Oxford.
Brown, Donald. 1991. Human Universals. Philadelphia. Temple
University.
Cotterell, Arthur. Encyclopedia of World Mythology.
Harris, Marvin. Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches. The Riddles of
Culture.
Peoples, James; & Bailey, Garrick. Humanity: An Introduction to
Cultural Anthropology
Scupin, Raymond; & DeCourse, Christopher. Anthropology. A Global
Perspective.
Part II: History
Beers, Burton. 1991. World History: Patterns of Civilization.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice-Hall. This is a well-written high
school-level textbook of world history. It is heavily western
oriented. This combination makes it good for getting a mainstream
overview of western history, but the non-western stuff needs to be
supplemented with another book.
Brummett, Palmira; Edgar, Robert R; Hackett, Neil J; Jewsbury,
George F; Taylor, Alastair M; Bailkey, Nels M; Lewis, Clyde J; &
Wallbank, Walter T. 2002. Civilization: Past and Present.
Longman. This college -evel textbook is well written, not too short,
and not too long. It is western oriented, though the non-western
sections are quite good, if not as detailed. If you read the western
sections of the Beers textbook and the non-western sections of this
book, you would get very good overview of mainstream global history.
Burke, James.; and Ornstein, Robert. 1997. The Axemaker’s Gift.
Technology’s Capture and Control of Our Minds and Culture. New
York. Putnam..
Gonnick, Larry. The Cartoon History of the Universe (Volumes
I & 2).
Hammond. Historical Atlas of the World
Haywood, John. Atlas of World History.
McNeill, J.R.; & McNeill, William. 2003. The Human Web: A
Bird’s-Eye View of World History. New York. W.W. Norton
McNeill, William. 1996. A History of the Human Community. New
York. Prentice Hall. McNeill is a brilliant, clear thinking world
historian, who emphasizes cultural diffusion and environmental
factors like landscape and disease. This book is a more personal
view of world history than other textbooks, and should perhaps be
complimented by reading them, just to learn the basic labels and
periods that are normally emphasized. An invaluable book.
Spier, Fred. 1996. The Structure of Big History: From the Big
Bang until Today. Amsterdam. Amsterdam University Press. Spier
is one of the first historians to advocate the idea of “big
history”.
Wright, Robert. Non-Zero. The Logic of Human Destiny.
Philosophy and Religion
Byrom, Thomas (Translator). Dhammapada: The Sayings of the Buddha
Gaarder, Jostein. 1994. Sophie’s World. A Novel About the History
of Philosophy. New York. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
Palmer, Donald. Does the Center Hold? An Introduction to Western
Philosophy.
Rahulla, Walpola. What the Buddha Taught.
Russell, Bertrand. The History of Western Philosophy.
Smith, Huston. The World’s Religions
Solomon, Robert C. & Higgins, Kathleen. A Passion for Wisdom. A
Very Brief Introduction to Philosophy
Watson, Peter. 2001. The Modern Mind. An Intellectual History of
the 20th Century. New York. HarperCollins.
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen.
Economics
Heilbroner, Robert; & Thurow, Lester. Economics Explained
Heilbroner, Robert. The Worldly Philosophers.
Landes, David. 1998. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some
are So Rich, and Some are So Poor. New York. Norton. Economic
history, trying to explain the explosion of the west. Opinionated
and Eurocentric, but worth reading.
Poundstone, William. Prisoner’s Dilemma
Wheelan, Charles. 2002. Naked Economics. Undressing the Dismal
Science. New York. W.W. Norton. An entertaining exposition of
modern economic thought. A former correspondent for the Economist,
Wheelan has the blend of intelligence, humor, and pro-free market
bias that characterizes that magazine.
Book III: Finding a Balance
The Shape of the Present: Global Trends Since 1945
Seeking Solutions
(I have not completed these chapters yet, so this is a grab bag of
diverse books that might be relevant. See history books listed above
for recent history)
Current Events
Political and Social
Goldstein, Joshua. International Relations
Macionis, John J. Sociology. The Basics
United Nations. Charter.
United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights
United Nations Development Program. Human Development Report.
Kelleher, Ann; Klein, Laura. Global Perspectives. A Handbook for
Understanding Global Issues
World Bank. World Development Report.
Environmental
Brown, Lester R.; Renner, Michael.; Flavin, Christopher. Annual.
Vital Signs: The Environmental Trends that are Shaping our Future.
A valuable, easy to read update on environmental trends, with short
summaries and nice graphics. Very level-headed and factual.
Brown, Lester R; Flavin, Christopher; Postel, Sandra. 1991.
Saving the Planet. How to Shape an Environmentally Sustainable
Global Economy. New York. Norton.
Brown, Lester R. Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth.
New York. Norton.
Gonnick, Larry; & Outwater, Alice. The Cartoon Guide to the
Environment
I.U.C.N.; U.N.E.P.; & W.W.F. Caring for the Earth. A Strategy for
Sustainable Living.
Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac
Meadows, Donella; Meadows, Dennis L.; Randers, Jorgen; & Behrens,
William H. III. The Limits to Growth.
Meadows, Donella H.; Meadows, Dennis L; & Randers, Jorgen. Beyond
the Limits.
Miller, G. Tylor. Living in the Environment: Principles,
Connections, and Solutions.
Myers, Norman. Gaia. An Atlas of Planet Management
Raven, Peter; Berg, Linda; & Johnson, George. Environment.
United Nations. Rio Declaration.
World Commission on Environment and Development. Our Common
Future.
World Resources Institute. World Resources Report (Annual).
Worldwatch Institute. Annual. State of the World. A Worldwatch
Institute Report on Progress toward a Sustainable Society. New
York. Norton.
Personal Growth, Spiritual, and Ethical Issues
Capra, Fritjof. 1982. The Turning Point: Science, Society, and
the Rising Culture. New York. Simon & Schuster. Describes the
problems with the mechanistic worldview, advocating a shift in
society toward a more holistic, integrative view. Swings a little
too far in that direction for my taste, but the point is still a
good one, and Capra is a good, clear writer.
Miller, Timothy. How to Want What You Have. Discovering the Magic
and Grandeur of Ordinary Existence
Nat Han, Thich. The Miracle of Mindfulness
Nat Han, Thich. Peace is Every Step.
Gunaratana, Henepola. Mindfulness in Plain English
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. 1993. The Evolving Self: A Psychology
for the Third Millennium. A sweeping application of the idea of
flow to the human condition. A very good book, but I recommend
reading his Flow first. New York. HarperCollins.
Erhlich, Paul; & Ornstein, Robert. 1989. New World, New Mind.
Moving Toward Conscious Evolution. New York. Doubleday.
