Books : On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 153.4
EAN: 9780312359201
ISBN: 0312359209
Label: St. Martin's Press
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: February 05, 2008
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date: February 05, 2008
Sales Rank: 10991
Studio: St. Martin's Press
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Product Description:
You recognize when you know something for certain, right? You "know" the sky is blue, or that the traffic light had turned green, or where you were on the morning of September 11, 2001--you know these things, well, because you just do.
In On Being Certain, neurologist Robert Burton challenges the notions of how we think about what we know. He shows that the feeling of certainty we have when we "know" something comes from sources beyond our control and knowledge. In fact, certainty is a mental sensation, rather than evidence of fact. Because this "feeling of knowing" seems like confirmation of knowledge, we tend to think of it as a product of reason. But an increasing body of evidence suggests that feelings such as certainty stem from primitive areas of the brain, and are independent of active, conscious reflection and reasoning. The feeling of knowing happens to us; we cannot make it happen.
Bringing together cutting edge neuroscience, experimental data, and fascinating anecdotes, Robert Burton explores the inconsistent and sometimes paradoxical relationship between our thoughts and what we actually know. Provocative and groundbreaking, On Being Certain, will challenge what you know (or think you know) about the mind, knowledge, and reason.
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"It's not what ya don't know that causes most problems. It's what ya know for sure that just ain't so." Humorist and aphorist Josh Billings warned us a Century and-a-half ago about the danger of determined, intransigent certainty in human affairs.
With this critical book, neuroscientist and neurologist Dr. Burton has taken a bite into a most perplexing problem of why there is so much human conflict and intolerance in the world. Yet this book so tightly focuses on "certainty" without relating his neuroscience investigation to the origins of mankind's tendencies toward "intolerance". He addresses with passion and intellect how our brain can lead us to engage in arbitrary, misleading rhetoric and actions despite our being an "enlightened" people.
My interest in the subject of this book is quite pragmatic: I develop education programs on brain function literacy for the general public - primarily pre-teens in grades 4-6 and for seniors. We must start using neuroscience to help teach coping skills that help us avoid harming others and ourselves. Emotional Honesty & Self-Acceptance In "Challenge of Intolerance" courses for seniors we examine the fact that our superior brain capabilities are quite easily compromised by intra-neurological battles in deciding "Is what we know or believe true?" Burton's valuable book is a bold and worthy effort that opens up this crucial neurological process to further examination.
Burton deftly delves into ... Read More
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"On Being Certain: Believing You are Right Even When You're Not" provides a compelling examination of the feeling of certainty each of us have. Robert Burton, a neurologist and gifted writer, argues that this "feeling of knowing" is a sensation, much like touch or sight. Burton proposes a well-crafted thesis, suggesting that this feeling of knowing is identical whether or not the associated knowledge is true. Through a variety of means, he draws in the reader to formulate a convincing case. Burton explains that his motivation is for the reader to question how we really "know what we know," and much of the book serves this purpose quite well. However, a few chapters distract the reader by straying away from the central thesis. At other moments, Burton seems to do the very thing he cautions the reader against: presenting a "stance of absolute certainty" about topics that could allow for alternative opinions or understandings.
In the first four chapters of the book, Burton forms a strong introduction to his argument. He introduces the concept of the "feeling of knowing" through personal anecdotes and allows the reader to experience this feeling through a simple thought experiment. With this foundation, Burton uses case studies to explain that we often are certain of knowledge that is, in fact, untrue. Burton also suggests that pathologies often provide a basis for study of complex concepts in healthy individuals is supported by the story of a patient suffering from viral ... Read More
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As an avid reader of books in this category, I was pleased to find something new in Robert Burton's book: a head-on engagement with the infrastructure of belief. The question Burton asks is on the face of it a simple one, but in its implications extremely complex: how do we know what we know? As a matter of practical observation, Burton asks why are some people so utterly convinced that their positions are correct while others consistently entertain doubt? From this starting point, Burton takes us through an entertaining and challenging tour -- part neuroscience, part psychology, and part philosophy. The interconnections between these disciplines are elegant and form the tapestry of a convincing argument. In my library I have a selection of books that have influenced my thinking, and among those are a select few that I revisit for insights over and over again. "On Being Certain" is among that select few, and I give it my highest recommendation.
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This is the challenge to 'certainty' (>>the kind of 'certainty', that is very familiar to religious and fanatic people<<) from the direction of SCIENCE (and not just philosophy) that has long been overdue.
And also it's like a shout out from the conscience of science to us scientists and the normal person from the street who has (maybe) never thought about what science does, and that message is:
"1.) Keep in mind, what 'certainty' means in science!
2.) Don't over -estimate/-interpret what you found.
3.) True knowledge is always testable for accuracy while belief is not!"
Thanks you Robert M. Burton.
Rating:  -
On Being Certain started out moderately interesting but at page 52 I hit a severe snag. When an author gets something I know about so totally wrong (or is being gratuitously nasty) I find I cannot trust what he says about things I don't know so much about. The comment that B.F. Skinner wanted to raise people like veal is so totally absurd I couldn't finish the book and will be returning it to Amazon for a refund.
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