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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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Good points but rambling
- By Brandon B. on 03-09-16
By: Daniel C Dennett
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Brain Bugs
- How the Brain’s Flaws Shape Our Lives
- By: Dean Buonomano
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it’s far from perfect: our memory is unreliable; we can’t multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but.
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Superficial, but mostly correct
- By Sean on 09-03-11
By: Dean Buonomano
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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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Free Agents
- How Evolution Gave Us Free Will
- By: Kevin J. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Kevin J. Mitchell
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency—or free will—is an illusion. In Free Agents, leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose.
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Adding Clarity to Agency
- By Brad Caldwell on 10-10-23
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Suicidal
- Why We Kill Ourselves
- By: Jesse Bering
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For much of his 30s, Jesse Bering thought he was probably going to kill himself. He was a successful psychologist and writer, but the impulse to take his own life remained. At times it felt all but inescapable. Bering survived. And in addition to relief, the fading of his suicidal thoughts brought curiosity and questions. In Suicidal, Bering takes us through the science and psychology of suicide, revealing its cognitive secrets and the subtle tricks our minds play on us when we're easy emotional prey.
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The book I was looking for.
- By Warrenjb on 01-04-20
By: Jesse Bering
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Kinds of Minds
- Toward an Understanding of Consciousness
- By: Daniel C. Dennett
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Combining ideas from philosophy, artificial intelligence, and neurobiology, Daniel Dennett leads the listener on a fascinating journey of inquiry, exploring such intriguing possibilities as: Can any of us really know what is going on in someone else's mind? What distinguishes the human mind from the minds of animals, especially those capable of complex behavior? If such animals, for instance, were magically given the power of language, would their communities evolve an intelligence as subtly discriminating as ours?
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Beyond Weird
- By: Philip Ball
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means - and what it doesn't. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience.
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A difficult listen
- By Ray on 03-17-19
By: Philip Ball
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Consciousness and the Social Brain
- By: Michael S. A. Graziano
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory.
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Cutting edge...
- By Douglas on 08-07-14
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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
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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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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
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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Overall
- 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