Editorial Review

As little children we know how to live in the moment and be completely authentic. But then something damaging happens to us, according to author Don Miguel Ruiz: we are given "knowledge" about how to live in the world. Parents tell us how to behave in order to be a "good" boy or girl. Teachers tell us what it takes to be a "winner" or a "successful" adult. This collective "voice of knowledge" is not only false--it is often poisonous, explains Ruiz, bestselling author of

Reviews (23)

Learn to conquer your inner critic and find your authentic self
Don Miguel Ruiz has a knack for taking complex concepts and simplifying them into basic principles that are easy to digest. In "The Voice of Knowledge", he describes how, as we move from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood, we gradually accumulate unconscious filters through which we interpret everything and everyone we encounter in life. Those filters -- or lies, as he calls them -- color our perceptions, not only about others but about ourselves. We bury our authentic self in layers of interference and succumb to our "inner voice", the critic who convinces us we are not enough. As a result, we feel inadequate, but more importantly, we lose our sense of connection with the Infinite.
Excellent and concise
Much of the teachings of Miguel Ruiz is put into a clear, understandable and absorbable form. There is a sense of empowerment that radiates from these simple concepts and this book has become an often read addition to my readings of the spirit and guidance of these principles that can add so much to living a life well lived.

You can be happy no matter what
I feel so grateful to have studied with Miguel and his mother many years ago. My life was totally transformed. His love and wisdom comes through so clearly in this book. If you apply these words to your life you truly can be happy no matter what is going on around you and magic and miracles can become a way of life.
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Subjects:  1. Conduct of life    2. Epistemology    3. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    4. Inspiration & Personal Growth    5. New Age (Self Help)    6. New Age / Body, Mind & Spirit    7. Normative Ethics    8. Peace of mind    9. Personal Growth - General    10. Philosophy    11. Self-Help    12. Toltec philosophy    13. Toltecs    14. Mind, body, spirit: disciplines & techniques    15. Popular psychology   

Reviews (5)

Very frustrating
I am a first year Ph.D. student, and I find this book quite frustrating to read. The reading drags on and on, and I can't really remember what I read. The examples in the book are somewhat helpful, but they do not seem to fully explain the concepts very well. I hope the next edition will have a more comprehensive explanations for the concepts in the book.

Cram101 should be Scam101
This book consists entirely of glossary entries on the even pages and blank note pages as the odd pages. The glossary entries appear to have been automatically computer-generated for the big words in the text, as the definitions tend to be standard dictionary definitions without consideration of any of the rich context of the Shadish et al. textbook. Many of the glossary terms are medical terms such as clinical depression, chemotherapy, spinal cord, phenylketonuria, etc., which demonstrates the mindless compilation of this outline.

Very informative.......
but very boring too!Actually, that's not completely true, it's just the first few chapters that are excruciatingly boring, but once you get past all the introductory material, it's quite informative.I'm reading this right now for my graduate course in experimental design, so I most likely found the first few chapters as boring as I did because I already knew the stuff.Although some pictures would be nice, and I'm talking about more than just the illustrations that they use to...uh... "illustrate" different experimental designs, it's nice that there's not a bunch of fluff to sort through looking for the information that is actually important.It's a well written and pretty easy to comprehend must have for those of in the wacky world of experimental studies. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children's Books/Young Adult Misc. Nonfiction    2. Epistemology    3. Experimental Psychology    4. General    5. Psychology    6. Probability & statistics    7. Science: General Issues   

Reviews (2)

Not a fan, but still very good.
Yeah, so, I'm going to avoid the part where i think that a couple of important things in this book are stated too vaguely for a responsible philosopher, or where i mention that he seems to make one or two blatant errors of omission.I'm going to avoid these things for the dual reasons that a) they aren't really relevant to whether you should read this or not, and b) i allow for the possibility that i'm imagining these gaps because i haven't understood him, in which case i'm the stupid one.Given my presistent commitment to Legends of the Hidden Temple, that's a distinct possibility. A Superb Collection of Articles...
Searle has collected a large and important variety of articles in this text, which spans several years of thinking on issues such as: the nature of consciousness, free will, the mind-body problem, rationality, and collective action.Only one article on Kripke's meaning skepticism has been not previously published.Read more

Subjects:  1. Consciousness    2. Criticism    3. Intentionality (Philosophy)    4. Language and languages    5. Mind & Body    6. Philosophy    7. Biography & Autobiography    8. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    9. Philosophy / General    10. Philosophy of language    11. Western philosophy, from c 1900 -   

Reviews (118)

Amazing book!!!!!
After hearing bad opinions of Ayn Rand's philosophy I was not to optimistic about this book, but it was wonderful.Its's easy to understand and makes sense in the worls today.I suggest reading Atlas Shrugged after it.

For the Serious Reader and Thinker
This is one of Ms Rand's best non fiction works. It applies her objectivist philosophy to a wide range of practical issues in both publc and private life. This is not light reading--this is pure brain food for the reader in search of humane letters and excellent principles of human relationships.

A mix of legitimate points and very flawed rethorics.
This, like many of Ayn Rand's works, seems to be one of those "love it or hate it" books that has a very loyal following as well as many opponents. I don't think it's that easy because this is a very mixed collection of essays.
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Subjects:  1. Egoism    2. Epistemology    3. Ethics & Moral Philosophy    4. Philosophy    5. Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy    6. Philosophy (Specific Aspects)    7. Ethics   

Reviews (27)

Semantics from the world of 1933
An interesting view that is not to be overlooked. As in physics we changed or concepts from Newtonian (space and time) to Einstein or non-Newtonian (space/time). We see this in any fields and some of us embrace the change and see how infinite our views can still work; others of us resist knowing that there is something fundamentally wrong if you can not put your finger on it.
Unrecognized Genius
Korzybski aimed his discussion at professionals, so disregarded definitions (multi-ordinal anyway), etc.Despite this many criticisms resulted, some from professionals, notably Martin Gardner (1993): "...poorly organized, verbose, philosophically naive, repetitious, mish-mash of sound ideas borrowed from abler scientists."
Mediocrity and Genius Collide!
Reading the other reviews of this book, I'd have to say I agree equally with every review. It is true that the ideas contained in this text are of first class and of life changing quality. It's also true that Korzybski might not be as eminent as some think. At the begining of each chapter, Korzybski qoutes specialists from different fields, and reading these is almost like discovering the fingerprints of a thief. You quickly realize that almost none of these ideas are of Korzybski's creation. It would seem that his intentions were to compile theories from Philosophy, physics, abstract mathematics and phycology and create a unified group, the only problem is that Korzybski repeatedly uses the phrase "my theory", when after about page 350, it becomes apparent that he has no real way of collecting these elements, and his only objective is to repeat verbatim in every other paragraph "The whole of Knowledge is structure, which is based on multiordinal relations, which include infinite-value order." After about the 15th time he has made this statement, you'll be ready to give up like I did. Suffice to say, this book did lead me to some real thinkers, Russell, Whitehead and poincare, and it did give me a new interest in the study of the human nervous system, but as the text stands on it's own... it doesn't. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. History & Surveys - General    2. Philosophy    3. Philosophy / Epistemology    4. Philosophy Of Science    5. Philosophy Of The 20th Century    6. Psychology & Psychiatry / Applied Psychology    7. Applied Psychology    8. Behavior    9. Epistemology    10. General semantics    11. Semantics   

Reviews (17)

Impressed by honest conservatism
In this day of spurious conservatives seeking political power by any means, Sowell's conservatism deserves attention. If you are ready to be challenged, read it!

Anointed
Dr. Sowell offers a very readable argument for the proposition that people should make political choices on the basis of what is actually good for them, and not on the basis of what their self-appointed "betters" think that they ought to want. Required reading for anyone whose political feet are not already set in concrete. Love it or hate it, it will force you to think. (Your brain is more important than your abs.)

This book is excellent, but must be read VERY carefully.
I have read about 12 of Thomas Sowell's books now, give or take.They do tend to be over-wrought with detail, but in this case it may be that he really did need as many pages as he used to say what he did and could have used more by filling in specific examples.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Civilization, Modern    3. Decision making    4. Economics - General    5. Knowledge, Theory of    6. Politics/International Relations    7. Reality    8. Sociology Of Knowledge    9. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    10. USA   

Reviews (34)

seminal work of the greatest of philosophers
I am an avid reader of philosophical books and without any doubt i consider Immanuel Kant as the greatest mind who has ever written on such abstract subjects.This work is a real copernican revolution,putting forth the structure of our cognitive systems and the way we perceive the world around us.At least it changed my own worldview,making me recognize that i am the creator of my thoughts and not a simple observer.For this reason i consider it one of the most important books i have ever read.

Poor translation
I read the long but fruitful review about the results of different translations of this text.So I went to my in-law who is German and she read a few paragraphs from the German.When I showed her the parallel text in English by Guyer and Wood, she was appalled at how inaccurate it was.She said the German was beautiful prose whereas the translation was aweful and didn't reflect the style of the German at all.She thought that the NK Smith was good English, but that it wasn't very accurate either.Unfortunately, I didn't get her opinion on the other translations.
Very Poor Translation
Please note that I am reviewing only the Guyer-Wood translation, not the work itself.
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Subjects:  1. Epistemology    2. History & Surveys - 17th/18th Century    3. History & Surveys - General    4. Metaphysics    5. Philosophy    6. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    7. Europe    8. Knowledge, Theory of    9. Philosophy / History, Criticism, Surveys    10. Western philosophy, c 1600 to c 1800   

Subjects:  1. Business / Economics / Finance    2. Epistemology    3. General    4. Philosophy    5. Business & Economics / General   

Reviews (12)

Challenging and relevant
The basic analysis is correct.For some time the conditions of information-overload, de-legitimation of authoritative sources, lack of acceptibility of grand stories about reality or human history, has resulted in a condition of dislocation/disorientation, reaction, and disempowerment that is very confusing, and very bound up in abusive power structures, the confusions of language and over-loaded symbols and games of language, and struggle to communicate.
Consider Lyotard's Intentions
In this short piece, Jean-Francois Lyotard frames postmodernity as a radical crisis of legitimacy undermining classical and modern "grand narratives." He does this, interestingly, by turning to Wittgensteinian philosophy of language, which posits language as a public and structured game. Consequently, for Lyotard, if the master narratives of science, politics, or theory itself communicate effectively, it is because they are operative and performative language games, not because they have recourse to some ultimate truth.
Provacative and significant work
I'm mostly taking it upon myself to write this review in response to much of the negative criticism it's been getting here. First, Lyotard's claim that metanarratives have been dismantled is an observation of the world he sees around him, NOT a political tactic that he's endorsing. The elements of specialization and performativity that function as tiny legitmating narratives are what have done this, and Lyotard feels that something should be done IN RESPONSE to it. In fact, what he says we should use as the major political touchstone in the somewhat fractured environment is in some sense a metanarrative: justice.
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Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Civilization, Modern    3. Epistemology    4. History & Surveys - Modern    5. Knowledge, Theory of    6. Philosophy    7. Postmodernism    8. Questions & Answers    9. Epistemology, theory of knowledge   

Subjects:  1. Epistemology    2. General    3. History & Surveys - Modern    4. Knowledge, Theory of    5. Objectivity    6. Philosophy    7. Relativity    8. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    9. Philosophy / Epistemology    10. Philosophy | Epistemology   

Reviews (13)

Polanyi In Context
Since many of Polanyi's main ideas in the book are given in other reviews, I thought it might be helpful to mention some other figures that are often associated with Polanyi so as to provide more of a context for his thought.First, the philosopher Marjorie Green, acted as Polanyi's interpreter to the philosophical community while he was alive. Her most accessible work is called The Knower and the Known. She did think that toward the end of his life he started to change some of his ideas (for the worse according to Green) although my cursory reading of the issues surrounding this claim have led me to conclude that it is mostly phiosophical hair-splitting. I consider Thomas F. Torrance, theologian and former moderator of the Church of Scotland, to be Polanyi's best living interpreter. He is particularly important to understanding trends in theology that have been influenced by Polanyi's thought.Most helpful is a long article that was published elswhere but is now found in a book called Transformation and Convergence in the Frame of Knowledge. Torrance does an excellent job of comparing Polanyi to the another big name in epistemology, namely Karl Popper, arguing that Polanyi's views are more inclusive and therefore superior. Some instructive comparisons between several seemingly disparate figures such as Kierkegaard, Piaget, Einstein, and Torrance can be found in a book entitled The Knight's Move by Loder and Neidhardt. I think someone has also mentioned it but Everyman Revived really is a nice little summary of Polanyi's main ideas. If you are a philosophy student you must read Personal Knowledge as it is the magnum opus of a very influential but often little recognized figure in the history of epistemology and the interface between science and philosophy.

In response to "Good for it's time, but..."
"Personal Knowledge" by Michael Polanyi is still a valuable contribution, even now. Okay for its time, but...
I don't think much of personological/subjective explanations of science, such as Kuhn's and Polanyi's, but I think their views should be heard and considered nevertheless. Western writers seem to have an odd fascination with this sort of approach, for reasons that are understandable historically but that I believe are still untenable, most of which is related to the west's obsession with the individual ego and individual consciousness and with the phenomenological and existential approaches to reality that grew out of that.Read more

Subjects:  1. Knowledge, Theory of    2. Metaphysics    3. Philosophy    4. Philosophy & Social Aspects    5. Science    6. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    7. Philosophy of mind    8. Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects   

Reviews (4)

If you want to *learn* how to think better, read this book!
Dewey's "How We Think" is the first book of his I have read.What a joy!I am in the "thick" of my doctoral dissertation, and am struggling to present and unfold my research work in a way that is clear to my audience (in this case, the members of my dissertation committee).Dewey's analysis of thought has helped me to consider important elements of thinking (and writing) such as: (1) the iterative "ebb and flow" between inductive and deductive thinking; (2) what is necessary to train my own mind to think "better"; etc.
Reviewing: How We Think
As a professional educator, it's always great to review and reread works by the great theorists such as Dewey. Great information for business and educators alike!

Better the second time around.
I had never heard of John Dewey until I took a philosophy class.When I first received the book, I read through it relatively fast.Much of the material went over my head.However, on the second reading it was as ifthe pages were illuminated.In this book, Mr. Dewey gives his opinion onhow we humans learn.It takes every day simple actions, breakes them upinto their smallest unit and discusses why we did it that way. Read more

Subjects:  1. Cognitive Psychology    2. Educational psychology    3. Epistemology    4. Mind & Body    5. Philosophy    6. Thought and thinking    7. Philosophy / General   

Features

• Illustrated

Reviews (3)

Would make an excellent text for IB TOK class
I teach the IB Theory of Knowledge class and I think this is an excellent book.I wish we had this book for a text.We have Man is the Measure by Abel and Think by Blackburn.Those are good books for teachers of TOK to read, but I don't think they make great books for students.This book has short chapters that get straight to the main problems of knowledge for many topics.I don't quite understand the order of the chapters but the content is great.It contains good examples and questions for students to answer. Alchin's book is written for IB TOK and I recommend it to any TOK teacher.

Excellent
This book provides almost everything that one needs to know for the TOK course. Highly recommended.

Great book
As an IB student I found this book great for the ToK part of the IB. I would recomend this book to anyone taking the IB. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Education    2. Epistemology    3. General    4. Philosophy    5. Cultural studies    6. Designed / suitable for A & AS Level    7. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    8. Life Skills & Personal Awareness, General Studies    9. Philosophy / General   

Reviews (12)

A technical approach towards causality
This is a very interesing book that Judea Pearl worte. The topic is currently of general interest for diverse fields as economics, social sciences and biology, however, this book is not intended for practitoners from these field who face a special problem and search for a possible solution. If you want to buy this book for this reason you will not be able to extract this information for this book. The reason therefor is that important technics like Bayesian Networks or Structural Equations are treated in 3 pages in each case. Judea Pearl assumes that the reader is already familiar with such methods beforehand. (Readers interested in the later subject are strongly refered to Bollen's book "Structural Equations with latent variables".)
What is the cause of intolerance?

Important but difficult
The scientific research community has adopted rigorous methods to eliminate the need for subjective judgments about many things, but when it comes to testing whether X causes Y, they revert to intuition and hand-waving. This book makes a strong argument that we shouldn't accept that. It demonstrates that it is possible to turn intuitions about causation into hypotheses that are unambiguous and testable.
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Subjects:  1. Causation    2. Epistemology    3. General    4. Philosophy    5. Probabilities    6. Research & Methodology    7. Science    8. Epistemology, theory of knowledge    9. Philosophy / General    10. Philosophy of science    11. Social Science    12. Methodology    13. Statistics    14. Cognitive science    15. Artificial Intelligence    16. Mathematics    17. Probability   

Reviews (6)

"Great minds can sometimes guess the truth before they have...the evidence...for it"
+++++
Mundane question, provocative responses
The question posed by John Brockman was "What do you believe but cannot prove?" It might be classed as one of those Mediaeval "angels on the head of a pin" queries. However, this is the 21st Century and what we know of Nature now stands in stark contrast to what was known then. The responses show that serious questions remain to be resolved. Not all of them can be, as the issue concerned lies either in the past or is too remote for close study. Some, of course, lie in the realm of what we deem "consciousness". A vague term in its own right, made even more difficult when the various respondents offer their own definitions. That tactic, however, makes the answers more stimulating by creating fresh questions. By selecting novelist Ian McEwan to write the introduction, Brockman shows he doesn't consider the question limited to scientific speculation. McEwan demonstrates his knowledge of the scientific issues [would that more fiction writers matched that capacity!] and how "inspiration" has advanced our understanding of Nature.
Even scientists are allowed to speculate...
in fact, that's a part of their job description.
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Subjects:  1. Belief and doubt    2. Epistemology    3. Essays    4. Miscellanea    5. Philosophy & Social Aspects    6. Philosophy Of Science    7. Science    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Science / General   

Reviews (31)

Really Heavy
This book is unbelievably heavy in the figurative sense.Although the writing can be laborious, the argument put forth regarding ancient astronomical facts being tied up in "folk tales" is stunning.Deeply researched, long, this book is definitely NOT for your ten year old.

Lacked Structure
There more than enough interesting material here for a good book. Reading this is like following a dozen rabbit trails without a guide. Even knowing the point of the essay before-hand only carried me so far. These authors needed more interested editors.

Clear reasoning, chaotic structure, engaging book.
Santillana and Dechend have made a compelling case for the role that myth plays in describing and capturing complex astronomical observations. I read it with great interest and engagement, but could have used better laid connections between the appendices and the main text. I am reasonably well-read in myth, but I still found myself flipping rather frantically back and forth and searching for online references so that I better understood what was being said.