A timely consideration of ways we construct our reality.
Willful ignorance can be insidious or self-protective.
Drawing on popular writings, scholarly studies, and her own experiences, philosopher and sociologist Salecl, a law professor at the University of London, offers a thoughtful, nuanced examination of the social and psychological motivations for—and consequences of—ignorance or denial. How, she asks, do individuals “try to avoid dealing with traumatic knowledge” by remaining ignorant, and how do societies “find ever new ways to deny information that might undermine the power structures or ideological mechanisms that maintain the existing order?” The pressure to know, the author asserts, has increased with easy access to information online; people feel responsible for being “experts at everything,” including making choices for a healthy lifestyle and deciding on medical treatments. Yet all-encompassing expertise is impossible. “Perceiving and comprehending the world around us,” writes Salecl, “necessarily involves deciding what is important to our needs and goals and what is not.” In times of crisis, ignorance may contribute to well-being or even survival. The author considers how people respond to traumas such as war, fleeing violence, or receiving a dire medical diagnosis as well as what new anxieties, shame, sorrow, and guilt people feel resulting from knowledge of their genetic makeup. Ignorance or denial are involved in love, as well, “when a person wants a relationship to succeed and does everything possible to keep alive the fantasy that sustains it.” Salecl notes the puzzling phenomenon of ignoring information from monitoring that is designed for self-improvement. People who do so are not “consciously embracing self-destructive behavior,” she observes, but rather, just downloading an app makes them feel better. At a time when fake news, propaganda, political rhetoric, and dueling experts dominate the media, the author’s analysis offers a fresh way to think about the decisions each of us make to “embrace ignorance and denial.”
A timely consideration of ways we construct our reality.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-691-19560-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
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