EGGHEAD CHOICE – Crack open for a hard boiled think

Crack open for a hard boiled think

The Origins of the World’s Mythologies by E.J. Michael Witzel

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, PHILOSOPHY - The love of wisdom, SPIRIT MATTERS - Reaching for the Divine

In this comprehensive book E.J. Michael Witzel (http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Witzel) demonstrates the prehistoric origins of most of the mythologies of Eurasia and the Americas (‘Laurasia’). By comparing these myths with others indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa, Melanesia, and Australia (‘Gondwana Land’) Witzel is able to access some of the earliest myths told by humans. The Laurasian mythologies share […]

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Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Jung

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, LIVES WELL LIVED? A pick from biography and memoir, SPIRIT MATTERS - Reaching for the Divine

Most autobiographies cover the main events of a life with the reader often left with only glimpses of the inner life of the author. Carl Jung’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung) autobiographical  Memories, Dreams, Reflections (first English translation 1963), focuses on the great psychologist’s spiritual and intellectual awakenings. The descriptions of his visions, dreams and fantasies, which he considered his

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Why Beauty Is Truth

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, EXPERIMENTAL EVIDENCE - Science & Technology

At the heart of relativity theory, quantum mechanics, string theory, and much of modern cosmology lies one concept: symmetry. In Why Beauty Is Truth, world-famous mathematician Ian Stewart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Stewart_(mathematician)) narrates the history of the emergence of this remarkable area of study. He introduces us to such characters as the Renaissance Italian genius, rogue, scholar, and gambler Girolamo

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The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think

Joseph Campbell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell) was the great comparative mythologist of the twentieth century. In this book (1949), from an astonishing range of examples, Campbell constructs the ‘monomyth’, a universal structure found in mythologies, folk tales, and fairy tales across the globe. This is the “Hero’s Journey”. In addition, Campbell explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world

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Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think

Social scientist and writer Malcom Galdwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Gladwell) put forward this thesis in 2008 about what leads to success. He examines the case of The Beatles, Bill Gates and J. Robert Oppenheimer. He draws on cultural and social factors to show that it’s not all a complete mystery. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he points to sheer hard work, practice

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Man, Beast and Zombie by Kenan Malik

EGGHEAD CHOICE - Crack open for a hard boiled think, PHILOSOPHY - The love of wisdom

Man, Beast and Zombie (2000) by Kenan Malik (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Malik) investigates the historical roots, philosophical assumptions and alleged methodological problems of contemporary theories of human nature, in particular evolutionary psychology and cognitive science. Malik argues that, ‘The triumph of mechanistic explanations of human nature is as much the consequence of our culture’s loss of nerve as

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