Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always had equally balanced interests in the arts/humanities and the natural sciences. I like to think that I inherited much of this from my analytical ā€œalgebraicā€ mother, who was a nurse and tended to our family finances, and my holistic ā€œgeometricalā€ father, who was a carpenter. Itā€™s probably no accident that my double major in college was in physics and philosophy...and, down the line, that I should develop a focused interest in human brain laterality, where the division between analysis and holism is so prominent.


I wrote

The Bilateral Mind as the Mirror of Nature: A Metaphilosophy

By James Blachowicz,

Book cover of The Bilateral Mind as the Mirror of Nature: A Metaphilosophy

What is my book about?

This book synthesizes the frameworks of my two earlier books, Of Two Minds: The Nature of Inquiry (1998) and Essentialā€¦

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Integrated Mind

James Blachowicz Why did I love this book?

Utilizing data from split-brain patients (whose left and right cerebral hemispheres had been surgically separated), the authors of this book focus on how our ā€œtwo mindsā€ yield a unitary consciousness.

This is the book that first lit the fire of inquiry for me. The whole idea was to understand the ā€œintegratedā€ mind by first understanding the minds of individuals that had been divided by severing the corpus callosum (which connected their two cerebral hemispheres) in order to alleviate medically intractable epilepsy.

It was suggested that in such individuals, their ā€œmindsā€ were divided as well. Yet some later studies did suggest that some intercommunication (through other channels) did survive.

By Michael S. Gazzaniga, Joseph E. LeDoux,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Integrated Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this book we are trying to illuminate the persistent and nag ging questions of how mind, life, and the essence of being relate to brain mechanisms. We do that not because we have a commit ment to bear witness to the boring issue of reductionism but be cause we want to know more about what it's all about. How, in deed, does the brain work? How does it allow us to love, hate, see, cry, suffer, and ultimately understand Kepler's laws? We try to uncover clues to these staggering questions by con sidering the results of our studies onā€¦


Book cover of The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution

James Blachowicz Why did I love this book?

A comprehensive account by a pioneer of the discipline.

This book provides an overview of the relatively new discipline (in 1975) of ā€œcognitive science,ā€ so much so that I wondered whether I should have switched over from philosophy (I did not). It displays the breadth and depth of the discipline, which convinced me that one could no more be an expert in cognitive science in general than an expert in physics in general, biology in general, or philosophy in general.

This book is certainly a must-read for anyone interested either in the discipline itself or even in a corner of it, such as human brain laterality. (Be sure to see ā€œhemispheresā€ in the index of this book.)

By Howard Gardner,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Mind's New Science as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first full-scale history of cognitive science, this work addresses a central issue: What is the nature of knowledge?


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Book cover of The Tao of Inner Peace

The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher,

With its lively, demystifying approach, The Tao of Inner Peace shows how the Tao can be a powerful and calming source of growth, inspiration, and well-being in times of conflict and anxiety.

This timely guide to the timeless wisdom of the Tao Te Ching shows how to: bring greater joy,ā€¦

Book cover of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

James Blachowicz Why did I love this book?

This book, more than any other on the subject, surprised and fascinated me.

Its thesis is deceptively simple. It suggests that the two hemispheres of the human brain were ā€œstrangersā€ to each other early in our evolutionary history (three millennia ago). The left hemisphere received the information from the right as a message from an unfamiliar source (an unseen ā€œvoiceā€).

Jaynes proposed that this was the basis for all religious experience. It was our intuitive right hemisphere that supplied the ā€œvoicesā€ of the gods. True human consciousness only arose when this bicameral mind ā€œbroke downā€ and the ā€œvoice of Godā€ was replaced with what had been speaking to us all along, the other more intuitive half of ourselves.

By Julian Jaynes,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion -- and indeed our future.


Book cover of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

James Blachowicz Why did I love this book?

This is an expansive treatment of the intellectual and cultural ramifications of the bilateral mind from ancient times to the present. The dominance of the analytic left hemisphere (the ā€œemissaryā€), McGilchrist fears, threatens to usurp its experience-grounded ā€œmasterā€ ā€“ to the detriment of human culture.

While The Master and His Emissary and The Origin of Consciousness cover similar topics, it is interesting and important to note that there are areas where their perspectives complement each other and those where they differ, such as their accounts of schizophrenia. I still find myself vacillating between the two. I sometimes wonder whether my indecision may itself be the result of my own hemispheric split.


By Iain McGilchrist,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked The Master and His Emissary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A pioneering exploration of the differences between the brain's right and left hemispheres and their effects on society, history, and culture-"one of the few contemporary works deserving classic status" (Nicholas Shakespeare, The Times, London)

"Persuasively argues that our society is suffering from the consequences of an over-dominant left hemisphere losing touch with its natural regulative 'master' the right. Brilliant and disturbing."-Salley Vickers, a Guardian Best Book of the Year

"I know of no better exposition of the current state of functional brain neuroscience."-W. F. Bynum, TLS

Why is the brain divided? The difference between right and left hemispheres has beenā€¦


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Book cover of The Lion and the Fox: Two Rival Spies and the Secret Plot to Build a Confederate Navy

The Lion and the Fox by Alexander Rose,

From the author of Washingtonā€™s Spies, the thrilling story of two rival secret agents ā€” one Confederate, the other Union ā€” sent to Britain during the Civil War.

The Southā€™s James Bulloch, charming and devious, was ordered to acquire a clandestine fleet intended to break Lincolnā€™s blockade, sink Northernā€¦

Book cover of Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences

James Blachowicz Why did I love this book?

One could almost have predicted that the concept of brain laterality would provide material for explaining the division between the political left and right.

Do political conservatives and liberals have brain differences that may, in part, determine their politics? This volume is valuable as a rare source of material for addressing this question. Political conservatives apparently have larger amygdalas (which register reactions to threat), while liberals may have a reverse valuation. These two brain features may contribute to determining hemispheric preferences.

By John R. Hibbing, Kevin B. Smith, John R. Alford

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Predisposed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Buried in many people and operating largely outside the realm of conscious thought are forces inclining us toward liberal or conservative political convictions. Our biology predisposes us to see and understand the world in different ways, not always reason and the careful consideration of facts. These predispositions are in turn responsible for a significant portion of the political and ideological conflict that marks human history.

With verve and wit, renowned social scientists John Hibbing, Kevin Smith, and John Alford-pioneers in the field of biopolitics-present overwhelming evidence that people differ politically not just because they grew up in different cultures orā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

The Bilateral Mind as the Mirror of Nature: A Metaphilosophy

By James Blachowicz,

Book cover of The Bilateral Mind as the Mirror of Nature: A Metaphilosophy

What is my book about?

This book synthesizes the frameworks of my two earlier books, Of Two Minds: The Nature of Inquiry (1998) and Essential Difference: Towards a Metaphysics of Emergence (2012). This new book is a metaphilosophy, relying on the more formal/logical categories of analysis and holismā€“a distinction that is essential for both epistemological and ontological applications.

That is, the analytical and holistic logical categories that characterize, respectively, the information processed by our left and right cerebral hemispheres mirror the analytical and holistic ontological composition (parts and wholes) of physical objects themselves. This reflects the foundational principle of Darwinism:  We are what we are, and we know as we do because the world to which weā€™ve adapted is what it is. That is, we are mirrors of nature.

Book cover of The Integrated Mind
Book cover of The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution
Book cover of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind

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