PositiveNatureThis ambitious intellectual history follows the changing understanding of the brain from antiquity to the present, mainly in Western thought ... With refreshing humility, [Cobb] contends that science is nowhere near working out what brains do and how — or even if anything is like them at all ... for the popular audience he targets, Cobb’s account is an important contribution: few have offered such accessible insights, with choice examples and clear explanations of the societal factors that lie beneath ... The Idea of the Brain puts our current predicament in context and synthesizes much that needs attention. It is a very good book. It could have done more in a time when science is coming to terms with the limitations of the straight, white, wealthy, Western, non-disabled, male perspective. But I hope it provokes contemplation about why certain metaphors linger, where they come from, how they persist, and in what ways they burden us with the invisible assumptions of past cultures.
