The Face in the Mirror by Julian Paul Keenan with Gordon G. Gallup Jr. and Dean Falk. What is self-recognition? When you observe yourself in a mirror, how do you know it's you and not some other person? Keenan and his colleagues explore these questions of cognitive science by reviewing the literature in the field. From Darwin's rudimentary mirror experiments to the modern magnetic resonance imaging techniques, scientists have tried to tease out the mechanisms of self-recognition, self-directed emotion, and its evolutionary significance. I found this to be fascinating reading--especially the experiments on primates to test for self-awareness and on brain-damaged patients who could not even recognize their own bodies and reflections. And who knew one of the hallmarks of self-recognition was that of deception?
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. The Venetian traveler, Marco Polo, finds himself at the court of Kublai Khan recounting the cities he had visited to the aging emperor. I would recommend this short novel just for Calvino's scintillating and fantastic imagery. But there's even more to think about than the writing style--at times, it's downright philosophical. Is Marco Polo recounting different facets of one city? Is he using his city descriptions as metaphors for more serious matters? Are Polo's tales part of some mind game he is playing with Khan? Or is this simply the matter of two men tripping on weed and having a bunch of hallucinations?
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