Truth be told I didn't finish this book, but it was such an investment of time to get three quarters of the way through that I'm taking credit for the whole read...

JAK DZIAŁA UMYSŁ? jest książką ryzykowną, bo po jej przeczytaniu, a nawet po przeczytaniu paru rozdziałów... nawet po przeczytaniu jednego rozdziału - czytelnika przejmuje dziwny, nieopisany lęk. Jest to strach przed zrozumieniem.
Choć instynktownie dążymy do odpowiedzi, to droga szukania jest milsza, od mety. Meta, to koniec, a ludzie nie lubią końców, ludzie lubią biec. Steven Pinker podsumowuje nasze wiadomości o umyśle i tworzy spójną całość, która zadziwia i (jak już wspomniałam) trochę straszy.
To wielkie tomiszcze odkrywa - w prosty i zrozumiały sposób - przed odbiorcą możliwości naszych umysłów. Oczywiście nie daje wszystkich odpowiedzi, bo już na wstępie zapowiedziano, że o UMYŚLE wiemy mniej niż o całym naszym organizmie, ale serwuje obfity posiłek.
Lubię książki o tej tematyce, zdecydowanie poszerzają horyzonty i zmieniają sposób patrzenia na siebie - w lustrze... niby zabawne, ale może niekoniecznie. Bo co tak naprawdę wiemy? Czego możemy się złapać? By nie zwariować...? Wszystko jest w głowie, nasze zachowanie, nasze poglądy, nasze wartości, etyka, moralność, preferencje... skąd się to bierze? Jak to kontrolować? Pytania bez odpowiedzi - lub z jedną odpowiedzią: UMYSŁ.
Zdecydowanie to książka na długie podczytywanie, bo wiadomości jest moc, ale czyta się to bardzo dobrze. Steven Pinker potrafi w zrozumiale przekazać dość skomplikowane tematy- to wieki atut. Przeczytałam sporo książek w tym temacie i mogę wstępnie ocenić, że ta jest jedną z lepszych. Może dlatego, że podchodzi do tematu holistycznie, przeplata zrozumiałe z niezrozumiałym i wyciąga najbardziej prawdopodobne wnioski - a może to przez styl, popularnonaukowy, który czasem staje się gawędziarki. Śą też anegdoty, przykłady i umysłowe zagadki - które wciągają.
Polecam zainteresowanym tematem. Będziecie zadowoleni i zdecydowanie wyciągniecie z tej pozycji coś dla siebie. Pewne rzeczy inaczej wam się poukładają w głowie i pewnie będziecie musieli przemyśleć swoje i innych zachowanie, ale to wszystko raczej na plus... prawda?

co nam siedzi w głowie? zagadka!
7/10
Wydawnictwo Zysk i S-ka

It's hard to absorb and review a book this big. I think of it as something like a one semester college course. Some parts are very difficult and I can't say I understood them all, and others are just fun. But it's not really "How the Mind Works" in the sense I was looking for. I was hoping to learn how all those neurons, glia, synaps and axons work together to make thoughts and actions happen. That's not this book. This book is more about how natural selection (Pinker uses the word "adaptation" a lot) and the Computational Theory of the Mind result in the capabilities that our brains have, like vision, other senses, and solving problems. Much of the book is thought exercises (however clever) to suss out how a particular brain capability could have resulted in greater reproductive success. Along the way, you get a heavy dose of how amazing the mind is given the difficulty of the problems it can solve almost instantly. The penultimate chapter is all about sex and relationships (and decidedly un-PC), which is fun to read, but really strays from "How the Mind Works". In the last chapter, Pinker tackles, probably as well as anybody, the problems of mental activities that don't seem to have any evolutionary purpose, such as art, music and religion. Lastly, he discusses consciousness, somewhat unsuccessfully in my opinion, but who has ever tackled that one successfully?

This book reminded me a lot of Jarad Diamond's writings, particularly "The World Until Yesterday". Like Pinker, Diamond believes *almost* all behavior and customs must serve some evolutionary purpose, i.e. increase the reproductive success of the practitioners. I can't blame these guys, after all, there is no other coherent scientific theory, but to be truthful, "How the Mind Works" sometimes made me doubt that the theory of evolution explains everything.

I would love for Pinker to update this book. Written 20 years ago, I think he greatly underestimates the eventual capabilities of computers. While I agree that the mind is unlike any current computer, advances in AI, such as language recognition and visual interpretation might steer his thoughts in a different way.

Ho impiegato tre mesi per finirlo, lettura molto pesante. Già il libro è corposo come lunghezza (circa 600 pagine), ma il problema è stata la qualità di scrittura. Non coinvolgente, a tratti "stancante" e ripetitiva. Ho impiegato molto a leggerlo perché ogni 100 pagine mi interrompevo e leggevo un altro libro per "distrarmi". Alla fine, comunque, non ho capito come funziona la mente quindi il titolo è fuorviante. Credevo fosse un libro con basi scientifiche invece è solo narrativo.
Do 2 stelle e non 1 perché, verso la fine, ci sono state alcune pagine (non più di 50) interessanti circa la famiglia.

This book frequently gets rave reviews. Whenever i sit down to read Pinker, i wish i were drinking again. Here is an example of a typical quotation from this book that i could only follow if i were drunk: "The cobalt 60 nucleus is said to spin counterclockwise if you look down on its north pole, but that description by itself is circular because 'north pole' is simply what we call the end of the axis from which a rotation looks counterclockwise." This is in the middle of a discussion, in which he puts down Richard Feynman, and concludes "God is not ambidextrous after all." I feel that Pinker presents his material in an annoyingly obtuse way and may be drinking when he writes. LOL

Good book to read, especially if you haven't taken a psychology course before.

Any deficiency in rating are my own.

Highly entertaining, sometimes difficult to follow and understand, always fascinating.

Long long book. Overburdened with information,but gives very little to the mind. It is a book about how our minds work. I was wondering while reading, does it really get to the point what it tries to explain? And i found very short amount of words motivated towards its motivation. After keeping me drawn to every opening chapters it deviates from its promise and becomes dull. There are so many things to skip which is because of Pinker's inability to understand what should be included in this book. Besides, so many things were incomprehensible(it was not my inability to comprehend) because Pinker wasn’t interested going with the context. What can i say more about a book where the writer blabbers for most of the part! And wouldn’t it be an irony if i try to blabber about a book because of its blabbering?
I would just recommend this book to no one. If anybody wants to read regarding this subject matter of mind there are so many great books except this. So if you don't value your time(which i don't as well),read it anyhow.

I'll admit it, the title drew me to this book, and, having finished reading the entire book, I can say it's pretty apt! I'm a liberal arts major who never even took Psych 101 and this tome did a great job filling me in about the different modes of the human mind. This book by turns fascinated me, astonished me, and caused me to marvel, all great things. Having a book kindle one's curiosity is always splendid, especially when the objects of that curiosity are the myriad amazing things our body does each moment of each day but whose wonder we become desensitized to.

In HTMW we learn that "The mind is not the brain, but what the brain does...The brain's special status comes from a special thing the brain does which makes us see, think, feel, choose and act. That special thing is information processing, or computation" (24). Pinker bases his book on two scientific theories: the Computational Theory of Mind and Evolution through Natural Selection. Basically, he argues that the mind is an adaptation that evolved to help humans outwit the environment, animals, objects, and human beings. In the opening chapters he explains these theories, and then for the rest of the book applies them to several of the mind's many modules, such as: the visual system, ideas, personal emotions, social emotions, and philosophy, religion, art, and music ("Auditory cheesecake").

I learned a ridiculous amount from this book and often felt ecstatic reading it. His arguments are very convincing and copiously documented. And his prose is very rich and memorable. I re-read many sections in sheer delight and things stuck with me due to the engaging way he wrote them. I plan to re-read portions of this book for a long while to come. The chapter on personal emotions, "Hotheads," was a highlight for me, looking at why we feel at all, where different feelings come from in our evolutionary past, and what emotions are and are for. He discusses all kinds of feelings such as anger, happiness, grief, and disgust. It's a fantastic chapter!

Overall, this book enhanced my worldview through a detailed look at the human mind's inner workings and boosted my curiosity, both invaluable assets! I am looking forward to reading more of Mr. Pinker's works.

This was a good book overall, but it did not live up to my expectations, especially in the last few sections, which I felt were more like filler material; which is not to say that they were of little interest in and of themselves. I understand his need to make an argumentation in favor of evolutionary psychology, considering the current political climate and the constant denial of the existence of "human nature" on the extreme left, but I think it simply did not belong in this book.

Apart from the section where the author detailed the human sense of vision, and how the brain processes visual information to build a 3D image of the environment (with all kinds of tricks and assumptions to solve problems that are technically unsolvable), in addition to the introduction of the Computational Theory of Mind, there was little talk of "how the mind works" actually. We learn more in this book about how the human brain might have evolved, and the environmental pressures to which it might have been subjected during that process, as well as the consequences of this evolution on human traits and behavior, than about the modules and processes within the brain that convert sensory data to meaningful information, actions, and qualia.

There are whole sections dedicated to conflict between individuals, groups, sexes, parents and children, and how this might have directed our evolution, but little in the way of an explanation of what the brain is doing as it processes data about one's social standing, social relationships, etc, to generate emotions, actions, reactions and conscious decisions.

The earlier sections about the modular and hierarchical nature of brain structures, and the combinatorial nature of its processes, were interesting as a refresher, but by no means offered any new ideas to me personally. The introduction and argumentation for CTM on the other hand left a greater impact on my intellect, and I'm enthused to learn more about it.

Perhaps Pinker's relative failure in this book (compared to "The Language Instinct") is due to his attempt to tackle subjects outside of his area of expertise.

That being said, it was still a enjoyable read, and was by no means devoid of good insights.

It's been years since I've read this, so I don't reliably remember all the arguments in Pinker's book. I remember finding it very interesting at the time, but since then, I've become a lot more skeptical about evolutionary psychology.

I'm not actually sure that I read the whole thing, considering I can't remember much of it...

impenetrable, repetitive, useless ... did I say I was disappointed?