Bradford Books

I decided to read that book because of its frequent appearance in other highly interesting scriptures on 'situated cognition', most notably in Andy Clark's "Being There".

It's a book about the cognitive task of ship navigation, but at the same time it's a book about distributed cognition in general, including organisational learning, the question of representation, and other highly relevant topics.

The field of cognitive science is still a place of almost religious debate about turing machines, problem solvers, representation, intelligence and other theoretical concepts that have in common that they can be discussed, but usually not observed directly. One could easily gain the impression that there was some kind of uncertainty principle special to cognitive science that prevented us from watching "the mind".

It's the biggest strength and achievement of Hutchins' book that he came up with the elegant solution to watch "the mind" by observing humans deal with problems using the cognitive tools (systems of representation and 'real' tools as well) that have developed over the centuries. It's almost ironic to see how well this works. By providing further evidence that cognition is generally a distributed task that is done by interacting with cognitive tools, Hutchins proves to be a philosopher in the Wittgensteinian sense who "shows the fly the way from the fly bottle (of mentalism)."

In early 1997, this book helped change the course of my career.

I study software engineering processes, especially software quality assurance techniques. I'd been troubled by the linear, cartesian reasoning we use in our field to justify some practices and deprecate others. What Hutchins did for me is open the door to a whole different way of thinking about cognitive processes in relation to technology. Up to the moment I was drawn to the interesting title on the shelf of a Barnes and Noble bookstore, I had only a vague idea that there are people who study how other people think and make decisions. Since then, I've discovered interesting ideas about how to organize and train software testers from lots of different fields. But it all started with Cognition in the Wild.

What's so special about Cognition in the Wild? I think there are a few factors at work:

- Hutchins style of writing is personable and readable.

- His conclusions are supported by vivid and detailed accounts from the bridge of a warship. I felt like I was there, with him.

- His ideas about naturally situated cognition are so immediately applicable to any system where a group of people are producing an intellectual product.

- His description of the paradigmatic differences between Western and Micronesian navigation practice helped me make sense of similar fundamental differences among factions in my own field.

Since I discovered this stuff, I've oriented my SQA process work squarely toward helping people think better in groups-- a social cognition focus.

In the introduction to this book, Lycan isolates no fewer than eight uses of the term 'conscious' and fifteen candidates for what one might mean by 'the problem of consciousness'.

Lycan's points are clear and direct. One always knows _exactly_ what issue is being addressed, which is no small accomplishment in this field.

I really regret having taken so long to get to read this book. It is surely one of the great contributons to the consicousness debate, although it may not have been as influential as Lycans previous book, Consicousness. There are some aspects of this book that really separate it from many others, but there are things that are to be expected in any philosophy book on consicousness as well.

One of the things in the first group of things I mentioned, is Lycans ability to clarify just exactly what is the problem. He manages to define 8 diferent concepts of consicousness, and over 14 problems concerning these concepts, in just the first chapter. This is no easy task on its own, but it is also a very important one. Although by realizing all these concepts and problems may be players in the study of consicousness, one realizes that many authors have been talking about different things all along, it also makes things easy for the reader, because one is certain of what exactly Lycan will be talking about. This is not to say that his discussions concern just one or another of these concepts. He actually goes trhough quite a number of them.

Now Lycans position is clear. He is a representationalist, and his thesis, wich he defends along the whole book, is that all consicous states are exhausted by their representational properties plus the functional organization of the system. The view itself is not completely new. Many others are representationalists (notably Dretske and Tye). But the fine points, the details, are different. And it is because of these differences that one can see the strenghts of Lycans position.

Lycan then, in this book, aims to explain his ideas on consicousness and qualia. These are not equivalent, Lycan argues. Consciousness is one thing, and qualia are other things, so to say that one is consicous of a certain qualia is not at all tautological. To Lycan qualia are first-order properties of intentional represented objects. Consicousness is the ¨internal monitoring¨ of these first order states. Much of the arguing begins here. Is this not just another higher order thought theory? No, becuase it is not a thought, but a ¨monitoring¨, where Lycan hold this to be somewhat perceptionlike, but not quite. Is it not that leading to infinite regress? no, because, the monitoring does not have qualia, qualia qre one thing, consicousness is another. So there is no need for another monitoring to monitor the second other monitoring to make IT have qualia consicousness. This is, however, probably subject of the above mentioned previous book.

So in this book Lycan sets to defend his theory against 4 objections dues to differetn philosophers. Here Lycan shows his ability as a philosopher, and argues for his position adequately. The first objection is of course that of fallibility. Can the internal monitor fail? yes it can, says Lycan. So can there be unfelt pains (pains not monitored, or mismonitored)? yes. Is this sensible. Yes, argues Lycan. And he does this adequatley too. Lycan manages to make his position intellegible even when at first sight it seems that this might not be possible. This is what philosphers are supposed to do.

How about the classical problems. Levine answers Nagels famous bat example much the same way David Papineau has in his work: Knowing about consicous mental states in a creature will not recreate these states in us. He argues Levines explanatory gap and Jacksons knowledge argument are wrong because they both ignore modes of presentation. The explanatory gap is to be expected because the represetational functional role, and the extension of that representation can only ocurr in one person at the same time. Color blind Mary, on the other hand, does learn a new fact, but this fact is finely-grained by the mode of presentation it has. These discussions are on my opinion the books high points. Lycan finally answers all kinds of objections concerning qualia, nonrepresentational qualia, strange qualia, inversion thought experiments, etc. In every case Lycan suceeds in defending his position, and in defending representationalism itself against its oponents.

Lycan, in closing, has written an excellent book on the philosophy of consicousness. His position is very compelling, and his arguments all semm quite sound. But in these types of books one must be careful to to believe it all. Its philosophy were talking about, and complete agreement is impossible. The debates are certainly not over, and there are some parts in Lycans ideas that need a little bit of work. But these are bridging principle, and psychosemantic issues, which Lycan deliberately ignores. I recomend this book highly as yet another example that philosophers can make advancements in this difficult topic.

Bradford Morrow's DIDN'T DIDN'T DO IT pairs wordplay with the fin story of Didn't and his friends, who decide to build a tree house against all odds - and against the tree's previous bird owners, who aren't happy. Fun wordplay teaches kids language while providing an entertaining story line with some rollicking results.

Just a splendid children's book. The kids love it and it makes the adults giggle as well. I hope this is the beginning of many in a series.

This is an original and well-wrritten fantasy story about a boy who lives in our world, but must go back to his own world to fight the Usurper. It's the first in a series of novels, but it's also a self-contained book (so you don't have to read all the books to make sense of the story). It moves from one world to another in fine fashion and features a powerful and moving ending.   I highly recommend it. Karleen Bradford is well known for her historical novels of the Crusades, this is her first foray into fantasy fiction.

The novel Dragonfire written by Karleen Bradford is one of my favourite books! Bradford describes her characters in a way that makes them seem so real. In this novel fantasy was combined with adventure, and even though I never thought of fantasy as something I would enjoy, this book was way more than I expected! The mythical characters and conflicts became real to me and I couldn't put the book down. Dahl faces many problems, as he grows up learning that he is really the King of Taun, a kingdom that has been over taken by the evil Usurper. As Dahl tries to save his kingdom he discovers the true meaning of friendship,and realizes that the future of his people depends on him. The ending of this novel surprised me in a pleasant way and I couldn't wait to read the sequel. Over all this was a great book of good winning over evil. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

In this book McGuinness reviews reading research under the headings set out by the National Reading Panel. She makes a compelling argument for the kind of reading instruction known as synthetic, or linguistic phonics. The range of knowledge displayed is formidable.

Diane McGuinness is a terrific psychologist and writer. Her books are fantastic. This is another book of hers that should be required reading for anyone who want to understand the process of learning to read. Though written for a technical audience, she writes so well and clearly that any lay person would find it understandable and enjoyable to read. Make sure to also read her other book, Langauge Development and Learning to Read.

In this breezy volume, Keeney introduces the reader to Autokinetics, the practice of spontaneous, improvised movement for the purpose of developing access to an energized flow state.

Autokinetics is based on an esoteric technique Keeney learned from a Japanese healer. The basic method is to sit on a chair and move spontaneously for 10 minutes, attempting to fall into a trance where your experience is that of being moved by the movements, rather than consciously moving your body.

As simple as it sounds, the practice is profoundly deep, and absolutely brings "life force energy" into your life, making you more creative, spontaneous, and passionate.

Beware though--unleashing this kind of energy within can lead to highs and lows of emotion and energy as your system gets purified. Keeney, like most spiritual teachers, unfortunately does not cover this important topic.

But other than that, this book as well as Shaking Medicine are important works in the promotion of arousal as counterpoint to relaxation in the spiritual path. It's a shame that this book is apparently out of print--it should be as well-read as popular meditation books by Thich Nhat Hanh, John Kabat-Zinn, and the like.

Mr Keeney, guide us toward a wonderful experience, in this book, he told us how we can make exercises without any force. A new way of the meditation, that will help people, like that can't stop for a second. I tried his method and I like it very much, with this method you could heal yourself, just try.

What can somebody who is a science of consicousness freak say about a 1000 pages book about the psychological, cognitive, theorethical, neurological, and historical bases of consciousness? ......well, maybe "finally". This is THE definitive collection of papers on the science of consicousness, something that could only be said before about all three volumes of Towards a Science of Consicousness, edited by Hameroff.

Everything one needs to know to START an inquiry into this interesting field is here. Represented are those papers that started the whole cognitive revolution, all the way to the most recent theoretical investigations on consicousness. The only thing one who is familiar with the literature can disagree with is witht he inclusion and omission of certain key papers, but I am sure the editors had their hands full in making the books size acceptable and at the same time representative of the field. That said, it is impossible to ignore that Baars seems to have chosen some contributions on the basis of how much they are supportive of his global workspace model. I doubt this was made on purpose, however. Another objection could come from the absence of a neurochemistry of consicousness chapter, or a consicousness in quantum physics chapter. The former seems to me impardonable to have been left out, and the latter probably should have been there simply because of the popular attention paid to it, if not because of its shaky scientific foundations.

It is a custom of mine to declare a book on consicousness a must-have, but this one has the most merits to deserve such title. No one who has pronounced the word consicousness in a scientific context can do without this volume...it could also work quite well as a textbook for graduate level consicousness courses. One only hopes that many more editions are published, and that it can be someday extended to various volumes.

If thought about in retrospect, it is perhaps flabbergasting that the study of consciousness was not considered, and could not be considered, part of science. The impact of the behavioral school of psychology was no doubt both a symptom and a cause of this exclusion. The reasons though for excluding the study of consciousness from science are now properly given to historians, for, as this book is an indication of, extensive scientific research is now being done in this area, and this research is a fascinating story. Once thought to be the domain of mysticism and philosophy, research into consciousness has, finally, entered the domain of the laboratory. The arm-chair speculations of Edmund Husserll are now replaced by the fMRI scan and careful observations. In the words of Francis Crick and Christof Koch, who have written an article for this book, "the time to start the scientific attack is now."

The book is a collection of articles written by active researchers in the field. The preface and the introductory article are excellent and not only introduce the reasons for the book but also put the articles in historical perspective. The author addresses the skepticism of some scientists on whether there is any evidence of conscious experience as such. The articles in the book were selected according to their approach as treating "consciousness as a variable", similar to any other topic of scientific inquiry. He is aware of the problems associated with such a view though, since consciousness, he says, cannot be varied "from the inside". Decreasing it will cause us to lose the ability to observe anything, and the consciousness of others is not accessible directly. The author stresses though that contrary to the assertions of some philosophers, consciousness is not beyond scientific study. We need not depend on "plausible intuitions, thought experiments, or rhetorical brilliance", but can instead rely on experiments and testable hypotheses. He calls this a "verifiable phenomenology" in contrast with the philosophical movement of the last century.

The article by George Mandler also expresses this attitude, asserting that the study of consciousness has been plagued with "philosophical, theological, and pedestrian semantic debris". For Mandler, the "mind" refers to the "totality of theoretical processes ascribed to the individual", and this viewpoint, he believes, will avoid the collapse into solipsism and sophistry that so often accompanies the philosophical view of the mind. Mandler gives an excellent overview of some of the approaches taken in the scientific study of consciousness. He also outlines his personal views on the subject, asserting that for him, consciousness is tied to a system of limited capacity, this limitation referring to the number of "functional units" that can be kept in consciousness at a particular point in time. Mandler does believe though that psychologists and philosophers are correct in their assertion that the content of consciousness is not directly available, and so other strategies must be invented to deal with this content. Most interesting though is that the author does not view consciousness as primary, but instead views it merely as one particular mode of processing. Conscious processing of information cannot therefore be said to have more status than processing that does not.

There are many interesting articles in this book, and space constraints do not permit a detailed review here. Some of articles that this reviewer found interesting or exceptionally well written are: 1. "Consciousness and Isomorphism" by Stephen E. Palmer, which addresses the "inverted spectrum argument". This has been a source of philosophical argumentation ever since John Locke first proposed it in 1690, and asks for a demonstration that the visual experience of colors between two individuals are the same, or whether they are spectrally inverted. The author discusses his reasons for rejecting Locke's assertion that there is no way to tell whether the spectrums are indeed inverted without the two persons "getting into each others heads." 2. "Strategies and Models of Selective Attention" by Anne M. Treisman. The author outlines her strategies for classifying attention tasks and experimental procedures to study them. She restricts herself to tasks that require immediate perception and response, wherein the experimental subjects are subjected to information overload. Her goal is to find out to what extent the mechanisms of selective attention can be encapsulated into a single mechanism. 3. "Aspects of the Theory of Comprehension, Memory, and Attention" by Donald G. MacKay, which attempts to provide evidence for a "modern" version of Wundt's theory, the latter of which asserted that the processing of sentences takes place at two distinct levels, one involving preattentive processes and the other attentive ones. The "modern" version asserts that the perceptual mechanism consists of two distinct and interrelated levels of components, with the first involving limited capacity short-term memory, and the second a large long-term memory. 4. The article "Conscioussness and Complexity" by Giulio Tononi and Gerald M. Edelman. This article, like all the rest in the last part of the book, called "Theory" is fascinating, again because of its attempt to respect the role of experiments. The authors attempt to identify the types of neural processes that account for the key properties of conscious experience, emphasizing that conscious experience is integrated but simultaneously also highly differentiated in that one can experience a large number of different conscious states within a short time. The authors discuss tools for measuring integration, which they call `functional clustering' and for measuring differentiation, which they call `neural complexity'. Then they give criteria for determining whether in fact a group of active neurons can contribute to conscious experience. These criteria are encapsulated into the `dynamic core hypothesis', which they claim is a testable hypothesis on neural contributions to conscious experience. Recent experimental findings are discussed that, in the author's view, show that this hypothesis is viable. These measurements of neural activity shed light on what kind of neural circuits are needed to perform different types of tasks, these tasks sometimes needing conscious control, and sometimes not.

Divorce is messy. Divorce is scary. This book will guide you through every stage of the process, from deciding whether to divorce, all the way to starting your new life post-divorce. Anyone considering or already immersed in a divorce in the state of Connecticut should have this book as a reference.
My spouse and I did not know whether we wanted to mediate or collaborate; after reading one chapter we went the collaboration route. (The info on litigated/contested divorce kept us on the path to collaboration!)
Ms. Stark writes clearly & concisely. The chapters are well organized to follow the chronology of a divorce. Frequent icons in the margins call attention to certain aspects of your decision making and give advice on the steps involved. The layout is clean and highly readable.
Many references in the back of the book help one find support, services, and materials to get you through. I purchased three other divorce books at the same time, but found myself relying on this one alone.
Consider this a necessity. Consider this helpful even if you don't live in Connecticut!

Ms. Stark's book offers both efficiency and compassion as she helps divorcing couples work through the process. Her information is accurate and precise. The advice she provides will enable reasonable people to find resolutions to many of the natural flashpoint issues natural to divorce.

Besides outlining the value of the mediation process in reaching closure and saving money, Stark provides a step-by-step how-to guide. Just as important, she offers an overview of the psychological stages of divorce that offers reassurance and preparation.

As a person using this book myself, I can recommend it to other Nutmeggers who find themselves needing to end a marriage. Doing so is always painful; Stark offers a guiding hand to help manage this passage.

I highly suggest anyone thinking about divorce buy this book first! It doesn't matter if you are from NY or not, the book explains enough about the process that it works for most states. Great Book!

This book held me to the facts. The forms and charts helped me to fill in the blanks at my own pace and therefore the whole process of divorce was much less overwhelming. I still needed professional help at times, but I was educated and prepared for such times. Great book for a difficult change in life.

The course I am taking prescribes the book by Brealey-Myers, but I find this book to be better and easier to understand the concepts for a person studying finance for the first time. There are a number of worked examples and also practice problems. I am amazed that this book wasn't our textbook in the first place. I happened to find this in the library and am glad I did!

If only my finance professor was as good as the book my class would be easy. I like the study guide and excel tutor that came with the purchase.