那天说康师傅的“纯粹理性”，其核心是我们的理性需要接过它一切任务中最重要的那件，就是认识自我，这当然是任何时代的任务——特别是我们的时代。

刚收到一个书目，是Brockman, Inc.在London Book Fair 2011的Hot List，其中好几部都是关于认识我们自己的：

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

FREE WILL AND THE SCIENCE OF THE BRAIN

by Michael S. Gazzaniga

副标题里的free will令人想起量子论，作者是著名的实验神经学家，也不相信决定论。他在书里提出了an alternative interpretation of the relationship between brain, mind, and behavior. 他说，物理过程生成的思想也在约束（constrains）大脑，正如汽车形成的交通约束汽车一样。Gazzaniga shows how the determinist view immeasurably weakens our views of human responsibility: “It wasn’t me—it was my brain.” He convincingly argues that, despite the latest insights into the physical mechanisms of the mind, there is an undeniable, human reality: We are responsible agents and should be held accountable for our actions.

ATTENTION: THE HIDDEN PATTERN IN EXCELLENCE

by Daniel Goleman

作者是internationally known psychologist，他1995年的Emotional Intelligence 已经在全球卖了600万册。本书说明了出类拔萃的人们有着某种被“小看”（under-appreciated）了精神力量（mental ability）。题目里的attention，说的是Self-reflexive attention，也就是对自己精神状态的觉悟（awareness of our mental states），它潜伏在很多意识活动中，如concentration, learning, recognizing how we feel and why, managing our emotional responses, sensing emotions in other people and reading their intentions while interacting smoothly, as well as countless other mental basics.

Self-reflexive attention 能预言谁能当领导者，谁能做好员工，谁能唱独角戏。

THE ARGUMENTATIVE THEORY: HUMAN REASON AND IRRATIONALITY (WORKING TITLE)

by Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber

人是理性的动物吗？心理学家在1960年代的实验，结果令人泄气：人是非理性的动物。作者认为被实验者是因为偏见才导致了“非理性的”结果。他们提出了Argumentative Theory，认为“理性”是为了在论战中战胜别人。他们认为这个理论“新奇、简单而令人信服地”回答了理性与非理性的问题。

Our hypothesis which we have been developing and present in our book is that that reasoning is not a tool of individual cognition, designed to help the lone thinker. Instead, natural selection has shaped reasoning as an argumentative device. Its main function is to help people use communication to their advantage: as communicators, by producing persuasive arguments; as audience, by evaluating arguments rather than accept gullibly what they are told. From this perspective, many baffling findings start making sense and can be explained with unprecedented precision and depth.

【这些书还在进行中，有的大概还没写完呢，这儿留几行原文，算是“先睹”了。它们将在一两年内出版。】