From Nature:
Picturing the Mind
Simona Ginsburg & Eva Jablonka MIT Press (2023): The groundbreaking 2019 book The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul saw Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka — biologists well known for their philosophical expertise — argue that multicellular organisms must have been conscious at least from the Cambrian Explosion, a burst of evolutionary development that happened 538 million years ago. In Picturing the Mind, the same authors ask: does it follow, then, that all the animals of today that originated in that period, including shrimps and crabs, are conscious? And if so, how can we begin to imagine what that form of consciousness is like?
…Ignorance
Peter Burke Yale Univ. Press (2023): In Ignorance, social and cultural historian Peter Burke uses well-placed humour to explore the numerous ways in which a lack of knowledge has affected both individuals and societies, for good and bad. Is ignorance always a bad thing, asks the author, citing the theory of ignorance management, in which people recognize what they don’t know and choose to focus on their strengths. It’s a fascinating thought experiment, but should be treated with caution. The idea of ‘good ignorance’ is anathema to me, as a policy researcher who thinks that knowledge is crucial for governments to make informed decisions.
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