Constructing Our World: The Brain's-Eye View: A Conversation with Lisa Feldman Barrett

Description

This book is based on an in-depth conversation between Howard Burton and Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor in Psychology at Northeastern University. This extensive conversations covers topics such as Lisa's winding career path from pre-med to clinical psychology to an academic career in neuroscience and her research on how the brain works and the development of her theory of emotion: every moment of our life, our brain is anticipating and making sense of sensory inputs from its environment—the combination of the internal environment of the body and the external environment—and our brain uses conceptual knowledge to do that. This carefully-edited book includes an introduction, Putting the Pieces Together, and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter: Beginnings - A winding road Confronting Variability - Essentialism vs. conceptual categories Convergent Pathways - Applying conceptual knowledge Networks - A key conceptual category Slow Progress - Some slower than others Towards Genuine Dialogue - The benefits of interacting with essentialists Final Thoughts - Some philosophical reflections About Ideas Roadshow Conversations Series (100 books): Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research featuring world-leading researchers, including 3 Nobel Laureates, but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research. Howard Burton holds a PhD in physics and an MA in philosophy, and was the Founding Director of Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.