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Who's in Charge?
- Free Will and the Science of the Brain
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
The father of cognitive neuroscience and author of Human offers a provocative argument against the common belief that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes and we are therefore not responsible for our actions.
A powerful orthodoxy in the study of the brain has taken hold in recent years: Since physical laws govern the physical world and our own brains are part of that world, physical laws therefore govern our behavior and even our conscious selves. Free will is meaningless, goes the mantra; we live in a “determined” world.
Not so, argues the renowned neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga in this thoughtful, provocative book based on his Gifford Lectures - one of the foremost lecture series in the world dealing with religion, science, and philosophy. Who's in Charge? proposes that the mind, which is somehow generated by the physical processes of the brain, “constrains” the brain just as cars are constrained by the traffic they create. Writing with what Steven Pinker has called “his trademark wit and lack of pretension”, Gazzaniga shows how determinism immeasurably weakens our views of human responsibility; it allows a murderer to argue, in effect, “It wasn’t me who did it - it was my brain.” Gazzaniga convincingly argues that even given the latest insights into the physical mechanisms of the mind, there is an undeniable human reality: We are responsible agents who should be held accountable for our actions, because responsibility is found in how people interact, not in brains.
An extraordinary book that ranges across neuroscience, psychology, ethics, and the law with a light touch but profound implications, Who’s in Charge? is a lasting contribution from one of the leading thinkers of our time.
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In this landmark 1984 work on free will, Daniel Dennett makes a case for compatibilism. His aim, as he writes in the preface to this new edition, was a cleanup job, "saving everything that mattered about the everyday concept of free will while jettisoning the impediments". In Elbow Room, Dennett argues that the varieties of free will worth wanting - those that underwrite moral and artistic responsibility - are not threatened by advances in science but distinguished, explained, and justified in detail.
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Good points but rambling
- By Brandon B. on 03-09-16
By: Daniel C Dennett
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The Conscious Mind
- In Search of a Fundamental Theory
- By: David J. Chalmers
- Narrated by: George Cunningham
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? These questions today are among the most hotly debated issues among scientists and philosophers. Philosopher David J. Chalmers offers a cogent analysis of this heated debate as he unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain.
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Chalmers' search for Consciousness
- By SelfishWizard on 11-16-21
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Touching a Nerve
- The Self as Brain
- By: Patricia S. Churchland
- Narrated by: Karen Saltus
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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What happens when we accept that everything we feel and think stems not from an immaterial spirit but from electrical and chemical activity in our brains? In this thought-provoking narrative - drawn from professional expertise as well as personal life experiences - trailblazing neurophilosopher Patricia S. Churchland grounds the philosophy of mind in the essential ingredients of biology. She reflects with humor on how she came to harmonize science and philosophy, the mind and the brain, abstract ideals and daily life.
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Joining The Ranks...
- By Douglas on 01-25-14
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The Four Realms of Existence
- A New Theory of Being Human
- By: Joseph LeDoux
- Narrated by: Graham Rowat
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Humans have long thought of their bodies and minds as separate spheres of existence. The body is physical. But the mind is mental; it perceives, remembers, believes, feels, and imagines. Although modern science has largely eliminated this mind-body dualism, people still tend to imagine their minds as separate from their physical being. Even in research, the notion of the "self" as somehow distinct from the rest of the organism persists. Joseph LeDoux argues that we have hit an epistemological wall—that ideas like the self are increasingly barriers to discovery and understanding.
By: Joseph LeDoux
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Quantum Entanglement
- MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series
- By: Jed Brody
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Quantum physics is notable for its brazen defiance of common sense. (Think of Schrödinger's Cat, famously both dead and alive.) An especially rigorous form of quantum contradiction occurs in experiments with entangled particles. Our common assumption is that objects have properties whether or not anyone is observing them, and the measurement of one can't affect the other. Quantum entanglement rejects this assumption, offering impeccable reasoning and irrefutable evidence of the opposite. Is quantum entanglement mystical, or just mystifying?
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gappy and devoid of rigor
- By Anonymous User on 05-03-20
By: Jed Brody
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Beyond Words
- What Animals Think and Feel
- By: Carl Safina
- Narrated by: Carl Safina
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals.
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Great book by a scientist with a heart
- By Sharon on 11-12-15
By: Carl Safina
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Being You
- A New Science of Consciousness
- By: Anil Seth
- Narrated by: Anil Seth
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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What does it mean to “be you” - that is, to have a specific, conscious experience of the world around you and yourself within it? There may be no more elusive or fascinating question. Historically, humanity has considered the nature of consciousness to be a primarily spiritual or philosophical inquiry, but scientific research is now mapping out compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood.
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Not engaging, nothing new
- By Tristan on 11-22-21
By: Anil Seth
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What Is Life?
- With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
- By: Erwin Schrödinger, Roger Penrose - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the 20th century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. It appears here together with "Mind and Matter", his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times.
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An extraordinary look at life by a Physicist
- By Philomath on 01-25-19
By: Erwin Schrödinger, and others
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The Power of Thought Experiments
- By: Daniel Breyer, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Daniel Breyer
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
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Thought experiments are “what if” scenarios that invite us to look carefully at how we think and view the world. They’ve been used throughout history by philosophers and other thinkers to explore our intuitions and ways of reasoning, to find solutions to problems, and to expand our knowledge of ourselves and the world. In these 24 eye-opening lectures, Professor Breyer takes you deeply into the historical tradition of thought experiments, shining a light on both the purpose and the outcomes of these compelling mental voyages.
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Real Life Pholosophy
- By Dennis on 07-19-23
By: Daniel Breyer, and others
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The Archaeology of Mind
- Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions
- By: Jaak Panksepp, Lucy Biven, Daniel J. Siegel - foreword
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 27 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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What makes us happy? What makes us sad? How do we come to feel a sense of enthusiasm? What fills us with lust, anger, fear, or tenderness? Traditional behavioral and cognitive neuroscience have yet to provide satisfactory answers. The Archaeology of Mind presents an affective neuroscience approach - which takes into consideration basic mental processes, brain functions, and emotional behaviors that all mammals share - to locate the neural mechanisms of emotional expression. It reveals - for the first time - the deep neural sources of our values and basic emotional feelings.
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Narrator 👎🏻
- By shiva on 12-03-21
By: Jaak Panksepp, and others
What listeners say about Who's in Charge?
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- david keyser
- 11-12-12
Needs more detail but good
More detail would be nice but a good start for people asking questions about free will and decision making.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Pickledgringo
- 06-30-16
Very interesting read.
Would you listen to Who's in Charge? again? Why?
Yes, probably. Lots of good information here. Some of it a bit unsettling. I liked this book.
Who was your favorite character and why?
This is not a character driven book.
Which character – as performed by Pete Larkin – was your favorite?
Again, not a character driven book.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, this is one to savor and contemplate.
Any additional comments?
Again, I liked it. Interesting to learn about my brain. Sometimes I wonder who the heck is up there.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeffrey W. Rudisel
- 09-01-21
FREE WILL?
A very wise teasing out of the confusing elements involved in the concepts of free will, self, mind/brain, and such.
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- Lynn
- 07-31-12
You Didn't Do It Alone?
Michael Gazzaniga (Psychological Science; Cognitive Neuroscience; The Ethical Brain) now has produced Who’s in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain. Gazzaniga is a well known expert in cognitive neuroscience, but this book makes the topic easy to follow and readily available to anyone willing to turns its pages. Most important, this book brings neuroscience and philosophy together. The result is a deeper understanding of free will as experienced (or thought experienced) by individuals. Gazzaniga would have been more helpful to me had he defined what he means by free will. I would have greatly benefited from having such a guide post. Such context would have been helpful. Nonetheless, the book is thought provoking and helpful from both the philosophical and the neuroscience perspectives. It will certainly make the reader stop and think. The reading of Pete Larkin is well done.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Stephane
- 07-06-16
Very insightful.
A very informative and non speculative view on the brain, the mind, consciousness and neuroscience.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Duncan
- 01-16-12
Informative and generally comprehendable
What did you love best about Who's in Charge??
Plain English in a field of in penetrable jargon
Which character – as performed by Pete Larkin – was your favorite?
Non fiction, no characters
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
A film of the mind
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1 person found this helpful
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- eric
- 08-25-13
Great book
Any additional comments?
There is a lot of interesting information in this book. The title would have you believe it is about the unconscious mind but its really about the whole brain, and whole person for that matter. He does go off on a lot of different tangents, but very interesting ones.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tama
- 04-22-19
Yes, indeed!
It seems that self-obsessed humans ....or more accurately groups of humans....cling to fairy tales and myths of convenience rather than delight in the understanding that even unconscious “thoughts” originate within them, and that survival of the fittest and perpetuation of the species are always what an organism strives for. The “global community” that we hear so much about these days....needs to place focus on adapting to the current conditions that threaten mankind, or the laws that govern systems will handle it for us. I can foresee large numbers of humans being eradicated by the system. World war, famine, etc....are some of the ways ecosystems cleanse themselves. Sort of like the purpose of a forest fire. Thank you for this.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-21-22
WOW just Wow!
This book will absolutely change the way you look at people behavior and probably change the way you look at yourself. Great book!
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- ML
- 05-01-12
Tough listen
Is there anything you would change about this book?
Maybe neuroscience isn't the best topic to listen to. I just didn't find myself eager to listen after a while. I was most attentive when he talked about specific examples with patients, moral dilemmas, split brain patients, how the interpreter comes up with absurd explanations for situations, and bizarre brain disorders. Too much detail, and not enough of a compelling storyline in my view. But I guess that's just how my brain perceived it, ;-)
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8 people found this helpful