MixedThe Wall Street JournalGames People Played is the culmination of a life spent working on the history of sports, and it ranges far and wide. But sporting enthusiasts might feel there is something missing at its heart. There are few descriptions of sporting events as such. The book says far more about the surroundings of sports than the achievements of the athletes themselves ... Mr. Vamplew is as informative and comprehensive as one could want. But the result can sometimes seem odd, like a book on art history that is excellent about the social standing of the artists and the cost of their materials, but tells you nothing about the paintings.
Peter Godfrey-Smith
RaveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)Godfrey-Smith mixes his theoretical themes with first-hand accounts of often surprising animal behaviour ... Godfrey-Smith brings on a large cast of other animal characters, including sponges with glass skeletons, hermit crabs that place poisonous anemones on their shells, and blind cave fish that steer by sonar. At the same time, his philosophical target has also expanded. This time he is aiming to understand not just intelligent behaviour, but also consciousness itself ... Godfrey-Smith holds that we find ourselves in these theoretical tangles only because we are thinking about consciousness in the wrong way. Consciousness isn’t a matter of some supercharged brain processes somehow turning the lights on. Rather it hinges on the existence of subjects, integrated beings for whom brain processes provide a perspective on the world ... Along with Peter Godfrey-Smith, I’m not inclined to insist on anything. But my own bet is that he is right.
Scott Grafton
PositiveThe Wall Street JournalMr. Grafton is an excellent guide to the contemporary science of bodily skills ... Mr. Grafton wears his extensive experimental knowledge lightly ... True, the evolution of language has changed our brains radically, and that in turn has enabled us, for better or worse, to transform our planet. But evolution can only work with what it is given, and so it must have built language on the basis of older bodily capabilities. It would have been interesting to explore the comparison between our verbal agility and our other physical skills ... On its own terms, Physical Intelligence is an emphatic success. Mr. Grafton gives an authoritative and accessible account of what is now known about nonverbal bodily intelligence. And for good measure he throws in an excellent introduction to the challenging pleasures of the High Sierra.
