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Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Mind (Paperback)

by Massimo PiattelliPalmarini (Author) "St. Louis, Missouri, can be proud of possessing the largest optical illusion ever created by the hand of man ..." (more)

3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; New edition edition (1 Oct 1996)
Language English
ISBN-10: 047115962X
ISBN-13: 978-0471159629
Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.6 x 2 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 77,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category:
#21 in Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Psychology & Psychiatry > Cognition & Cognitive Psychology > Intelligence

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Product Description

Product Description
"Fascinating and insightful. . . . I cannot recall a book that has made me think more about the nature of thinking." –– Richard C. Lewontin

Harvard University

Everyone knows that optical illusions trick us because of the way we see. Now scientists have discovered that cognitive illusions, a set of biases deeply embedded in the human mind, can actually distort the way we think.

In Inevitable Illusions, distinguished cognitive researcher Massimo Piattelli–Palmarini takes us on a provocative, challenging, and thoroughly entertaining exploration of the games our minds play. He opens the doors onto the newly charted realm of the cognitive unconscious to reveal the full range of illusions, showing how they inhibit our ability to reason––no matter what our educational background or IQ. Inevitable Illusions is stimulating, eye–opening food for thought.

From the Back Cover
"Fascinating and insightful. . . . I cannot recall a book that has made me think more about the nature of thinking." — Richard C. Lewontin

Harvard University

Everyone knows that optical illusions trick us because of the way we see. Now scientists have discovered that cognitive illusions, a set of biases deeply embedded in the human mind, can actually distort the way we think.

In Inevitable Illusions, distinguished cognitive researcher Massimo Piattelli–Palmarini takes us on a provocative, challenging, and thoroughly entertaining exploration of the games our minds play. He opens the doors onto the newly charted realm of the cognitive unconscious to reveal the full range of illusions, showing how they inhibit our ability to reason—no matter what our educational background or IQ. Inevitable Illusions is stimulating, eye–opening food for thought.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
St. Louis, Missouri, can be proud of possessing the largest optical illusion ever created by the hand of man. Read the first page

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	64% buy the item featured on this page: Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Mind 3.8 out of 5 stars (6) �8.99
	11% buy How We Know What isn't So: Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life 5.0 out of 5 stars (5) �9.09
	9% buy Bad Science 4.6 out of 5 stars (146) �3.60
	8% buy The Royal Road to Card Magic 4.9 out of 5 stars (24) �6.49

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but disappointing..., 27 Mar 2007

By	S. Bergemann (Newcastle, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book to be somewhat disappointing. It differed from my expectations first of all by not being, in itself, a good model of clear thinking. The author meanders through his topic at a leisurely pace and uses a good proportion of the start of his book making a case for how important its conclusions are but without yet revealing what they might be - hardly a promising approach. By the time the 'illusions' mentioned in the title are discussed the reader is disappointed to find that rather than being examples of everyday thinking missing the mark they consist of a number of examples where intuitive thinking diverges from the predictions of bayesian probability calculations. Hardly the shocking revelations we are lead to expect by the introduction. As the book continues a few more interesting observations are made about illogical biases in cognition but the emphasis still remains heavily on divergence from mathematical probability.

The total number of observations about the tendencies of human thinking away from objective rational logic are in fact only a few in number and I was left with the feeling that this could have been adequately set out in a magazine article rather than over the length of an entire book. Combined with the amount of verbiage dedicated to arguing for the importance of these few observations it leaves the impression of a somewhat exploitative approach to the reader - hype.

The final chapter of the book contains a discussion of other authors objections to the ideas and despite the authors' intentions to the contrary I was left with the impression that these were generally valid and did indeed undermine the significance of the rest of the book.

Bizarrely the author closes with a broad invective against current understandings about evolution and the reader is left with the impression of a writer too caught up in a personal debate with other individuals to have retained the detached style which should be obviously appropriate to such a topic.

To summarize: There are valid and interesting observations about human thinking patterns to be found here but the book itself is not well-written in terms of either clarity of exposition or reading pleasure.

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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Packed with Knowledge!, 3 Oct 2005

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

"Let the thinker beware" could be the motto for this excellent and very useful book. Author Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini has done a masterful job of arraying some of the most serious and most commonplace errors of judgment, estimation and deduction. The style is mostly straightforward, if academic, and makes the meat of the book's message accessible to the general reader. One quibble is that the author's explanation of certain probability calculations (especially Bayes' theorem) leaves them less clear than they could be. That aside, we give this book the highest recommendation, especially for those who like to consider how people understand their world. If you are devoted to clear thinking, you could practically use it to conduct a daily scrutiny of your mental processes - an examination of cognition similar to the monastic examination of conscience - to identify and correct any inclinations to serious cognitive sin.

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30 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The more we know the less we think., 19 Mar 1997

By A Customer

This is a fascinating book about the counter-intuitiveness of the relationship between how much we think we know and the quality of our perceptions and our ability to make rational perceptions. This is part and parcel of the writings of Tom Robbins (http://www.rain.org/~da5e/tom_robbins.html) The higher our certainty about things, Massimo points out, the more careful we must be in our assessments. I highly recommend this book. -Dale Kirby

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting topic. Less interesting book.
I have to agree with G Brooks. The general premise of the book was interesting and it certainly made me think, but it was pretty poorly written at times. Read more

Published 1 month ago by I. Plumb

2.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes interesting, but much room for improvement
There's some quite interesting material in this book, but I'm surprised it gets full marks from some reviewers. Read more

Published 10 months ago by G. Brooks

5.0 out of 5 stars A mind altering read!!! Could save a few businesses managers from doom
One could go as far as to say this book would save a few faltering businesses if the managers sat down and read it. Read more

Published on 10 April 2007 by K. J. Yeandel

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