I’ve been baffled by everything, especially myself, for as long as I can remember. In my late 20s, after years as a wandering hippy poet, I decided that science is our best hope for answers, and I became a science journalist. The mystery at the heart of science—as well as religion, philosophy, and the arts--is the mind-body problem. In a narrow, technical sense, the mind-body problem investigates how matter generates the mind, but it really asks: What are we, what can we be, what should we be? Below are some of my favorite books touching on these questions.
After decades of obsessing over the mind-body problem, the riddle of who we really are, I began to suspect that it is unsolvable. Or rather, there is no single, objective, universal solution, one that applies to everyone. Each person must discover her own solution, which reflects her own identity, experiences, fears and desires. I explore this theme in my 2018 book Mind-Body Problems: Science, Subjectivity and Who We Really Are, which presents in-depth portraits of nine prominent thinkers who have struggled with the mind-body problem on a personal as well as professional level.
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Douglas Hofstadter is one of the most original thinkers alive, and the mind-body problem is his great obsession. Godel, Escher, Bach, his magnum opus, argues that the mind is a “strange loop”, a thing that does something to itself. This playful, deadly serious book, which draws upon mathematics, computer science, physics, genetics, art, and music, remains as provocative and challenging today as it was when it was published in 1979.
Books on mental illness usually describe it either from the outside or the inside. Elyn Saks does both, integrating a subjective, first-person view with an objective, scholarly perspective. Saks is a legal scholar and psychoanalyst who has struggled with schizophrenia since her childhood. She combines vivid descriptions of what it feels like to be psychotic with clear-eyed discussions of the scientific, medical, and legal issues raised by schizophrenia. I haven’t read a better book on mental illness.
Sex is an essential part of who we are. What determines our sexual preferences? Do they stem primarily from nature or nurture? Deirdre McCloskey, an eminent economist, is especially qualified to answer these questions. She began her life as Donald, who was married and in his 50s when he realized that he was really a she and became a woman. Crossing, a memoir of McCloskey’s agonizing, exhilarating transformation, is a fascinating deep dive into sexual identity.
Literature, because it is less rule-bound than science and philosophy, may be more suited to exploring the question of who we really are, can be, and should be. Rebecca Goldstein, who earned degrees in physics and philosophy before turning to fiction, has written several novels that touch on the mind-body problem. My favorite is her first novel, The Mind-Body Problem, the funny, sexy, poignant tale of a young philosopher’s quest to solve the mind-body problem.
The mind-body problem complicates quantum mechanics, our most powerful, precise theory of nature. According to the theory, our observation of electrons and other particles determines their behavior. I’ve read many books that try to explain this so-called measurement problem, as well as other quantum riddles. None succeeds as well as Q Is for Quantum, which strips quantum mechanics down to its counter-intuitive mathematical essence.
5,888 authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about artificial intelligence, mental disorders, and quantum physics.
We think you will like Cosmos, Men of Mathematics, and QED if you like this list.
From Rebecca's list on for fellow science dorks.
I read Cosmos when I was young and it inspired the love of science I still carry today. I found Sagan’s musings about the pale blue dot mesmerizing, and the science was thrilling. I ended up going to Space Camp when I was 14 and Governor’s School for Physics when I was 16 to further my scientific knowledge. When I wrote A Paradox of Fates, I used some of the science I learned in Governor’s School to explain time travel, which has always been a fascinating subject to me.
From Basil's list on science to enjoy and to get you thinking.
First published in 1937, this lovely book is a true classic. In two volumes Bell brings to life 30 or so mathematicians, from Archimedes to Cantor. When first reading the book many years ago I had remembered some of the names from school and college, but only as labels to theorems or equations, and I felt taken into a delightful new realm of knowledge – I could now think of Fermat, Lagrange, Gauss, and Riemann as people. And I began to want to know more about the scientists whose names I had heard in school and college. Bell’s book had sparked a lifelong interest.
From Michael's list on quantum physics and quantum technology for beginners.
My second pick is by the master himself. Richard Feynman’s little book explains quantum electrodynamics or QED to a lay audience. Not only did he receive a Nobel Prize for his discoveries in this area, but Feynman was at the pinnacle of using deep understanding of physics to give the simplest possible yet accurate description of the world as seen through physics. He steps the reader slowly and carefully through some incredible journeys of logic (without equations) to explain how light travels from one place to another and how light interacts with matter such as electrons. It’s basic stuff, but deep and a fun ride.
