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

by Howard Burton

This book is based on an in-depth conversation with Lisa Feldman Barrett, University Distinguished Professor in Psychology at Northeastern University. This conversation explores her winding career path from pre-med to clinical psychology to an academic career in neuroscience and how this impacted her research on how the brain works and the development of her theory of every moment of our life, our brain is anticipating and making sense of sensory inputs from its 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

I. Beginnings - A winding roadII. Confronting Variability - Essentialism vs. conceptual categoriesIII. Convergent Pathways - Applying conceptual knowledgeIV. Networks - A key conceptual categoryV. Slow Progress - Some slower than othersVI. Towards Genuine Dialogue - The benefits of interacting with essentialistsVII. Final Thoughts - Some philosophical reflectionsConstructing Our The Brain's-Eye View is also part of the five-part Ideas Roadshow Collection, Conversations About Neuroscience, which is available in hardcover, paperback and electronic format.About Ideas Roadshow Presented in an accessible, conversational format, Ideas Roadshow books not only explore frontline academic research but also reveal the inspirations and personal journeys behind the research.

Genres: Science

77 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 17, 2020

About the author

Howard holds a PhD in theoretical physics and an MA in philosophy. He was the Founding Executive Director of Canada’s Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (PI) from 1999-2007. During his time at PI, he also developed an extensive outreach programme for teachers, students and the general public. His experiences at developing the research and outreach mandates of the institute were described in the book First Principles: Building Perimeter Institute, featuring a foreword by Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose.