Making Sense
Conversations on Consciousness, Morality and the Future of Humanity
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £1.99
Publisher Description
"Civilization rests on a series of successful conversations." Sam Harris
Neuroscientist, philosopher, podcaster and bestselling author Sam Harris, has been exploring some of the greatest questions concerning the human mind, society, and the events that shape our world.
Harris's search for deeper understanding of how we think has led him to engage and exchange with some of our most brilliant and controversial contemporary minds - Daniel Kahneman, Robert Sapolsky, Anil Seth and Max Tegmark - in order to unpack and clarify ideas of consciousness, free will, extremism, and ethical living.
For Harris, honest conversation, no matter how difficult or contentious, represents the only path to moral and intellectual progress.
Featuring eleven conversations from the hit podcast, these electric exchanges fuse wisdom with rigorous interrogation to shine a light on what it means to make sense of our world today.
'I don't have many can't miss podcasts, but Making Sense is right at the top of that short list.' - Stephen Fry
'Sam Harris is the most intellectually courageous man I know.' - Richard Dawkins
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Religious skeptic Harris (coauthor, The Four Horsemen) challenges a wide range of political, spiritual, and cultural orthodoxies in this greatest-hits selection from his podcast Making Sense. In his favorite discussions (updated with "many small amendments and clarifications") from the podcast's six-year history, Harris displays his skills as an interviewer and conversationalist capable of clarifying complex ideas and engaging scholars from diverse backgrounds and fields of study on their areas of expertise. Highlights include a conversation with Swedish philosopher and physicist Nick Bostrom (Superintelligence) about existential risk, the Cold War, and nuclear deterrence; Harris's efforts to create a working, contemporary definition of racism and with economist Glenn C. Loury (coauthor, Race, Incarceration, and American Values); and a discussion with biologist and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Robert Sapolsky (Behave) about the evolution of the brain and the human capacity for good and evil. The result is a collection full of stimulating, nuanced, and deeply informed discussions on both abstract concepts (the future of humanity; the nature of reality) and hot-button current events (the #MeToo movement). Readers will appreciate this accessible introduction to the work of some of today's most cutting-edge thinkers.
