![Physiology, animal and mental: applied to the preservation and restoration of health of body and power of mind 1847 [Leather Bound]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1694903006l/86079562._SX318_.jpg)
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Phrenology
Phrenology (from the Ancient Greek φρήν, meaning 'mind', and λόγος, meaning 'knowledge') is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. It is based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules. Although both of those ideas have a basis in reality, phrenology extrapolated beyond empirical knowledge in a way that departed from science. The central phrenological notion that measuring the contour of the skull can predict personality traits is discredited by empir
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Will those insights be tested, or simply used to justify the status quo and reinforce prejudices? When I consider the sloppy and self-serving ways that companies use data, I'm often reminded of phrenology, a pseudoscience that was briefly the rage in the nineteenth century. Phrenologists would run their fingers over the patient's skull, probing for bumps and indentations. Each one, they thought, was linked to personality traits that existed in twenty-seven regions of the brain. Usually the concl
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― Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
― Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
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When, therefore, a man is told, “You (your inner being) are so and so, because your skull-bone is so constituted,” this means nothing else than that we regard a bone as the man's reality. To retort upon such a statement with a box on the ear — in the way mentioned above when dealing with psysiognomy — removes primarily the “soft” parts of his head from their apparent dignity and position, and proves merely that these are no true inherent nature, are not the reality of mind; the retort here would
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― The Phenomenology of Mind, Vol 1
― The Phenomenology of Mind, Vol 1
