Scientific Introspection - Revised Edition

Scientific Introspection calls for psychologists to use introspection to investigate the mind. What researchers do now is study the brain, and behavior, then from that, try to guess what the mind must be like. But why guess? Remarkably, we have the ability to look directly into the workings of our own minds. That ability is called introspection. As far as we know, we are the only animal that can do that. It is foolish not to use such an amazing gift.

Scientific Introspection is a necessary adjunct to traditional cognitive psychology and cognitive neurophysiology, because there is no scientific way to observe the mind directly. Thoughts weigh nothing; ideas take up no space. The only way to observe the mind is through introspection. Scientific introspection supplements science with a genuine first-person methodology for exploring the mind.

The book includes a detailed description of how Scientific Introspection can be applied. The reader can follow the procedure and confirm or disconfirm the findings. The demonstration shows how to use a shared investigative tool to produce consensus findings about how the mind works.

Revised Edition:
ISBN: 978-0-9837177-0-6   $2.99 for the Revised Edition.
65, 600 words.  Approx. pages: 262.

Sample: TOC and Preface
(You'll be prompted to save the .pdf file to your computer. After that, you can read the sample chapter from your computer any time you're ready. If you don't have a .pdf reader, you can get it free at http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/).

Author's Note:
I have been frustrated for decades that so many psychologists and philosophers treat the mind and the brain as if they were the same thing.  It just ain't so, and this book explains the difference, why it matters, and how we could and should develop a scientific methodology for systematic introspection.

Introspection, the examination of one's own mental contents, is so second-nature that most people can't understand it, in the same way that fish don't know what water is. Perhaps that's why its very mention is banned from discussions of scientific psychology and philosophy of mind. The zeitgeist says that mind is the same as brain, even though that is patently false and not even cogent. If mind and brain were the same, we could introspect on the brain as well as our minds, and we would have no need for cognitive neuroscience.

The book says all this, but I think the idea is ahead of its time by 20 years. Beliefs are slow to change. Try it for yourself; see what you think.

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Hunter And Hunted Revised Edition

A Seattle businesswoman and archery hunter buys a prehistoric hunting artifact. Instead of establishing her as a serious collector, the artifact turns out to be a forgery. She returns to the seller in Johannesburg, but finds him murdered. Worse, somebody believes her artifact is genuine and wants it. She is hunted, but doesn’t know who is after her. Investigation is stymied when she is charged with the murder of the South African dealer. Can she beat extradition in time to find out who is trying to kill her and what happened to the real artifact? Will she get help from Artemis, ancient goddess of the hunt?

ISBN 978-0-9837177-6-8  $2.99  Approx Pages 100

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Sample Chapter  

250 Recent Movies You Will Like If You See Film as Art

Short reviews of 250 feature-length movies from 2011 to about 2004 are listed. All the films are available in the U.S., most of them on DVD or streaming. The reviews are five hundred words or less, just enough to give you a sense of what the movie is about and if you would like it. It seems this would be a better way to find good movies than browsing through unfiltered catalogs.

The movies here are artistic and thoughtful, which does not necessarily mean “serious.” There are plenty of humor, horror, romance, animation, musicals, documentaries, and kids’ movies. When I select movies to watch and review, I look for these two qualities:

A: Is it artistic? Is it good looking, well-executed, well-acted, well-crafted, or innovative? Does it advance the art form of movie making in some way?
B: Is it thoughtful? A thoughtful movie has something to say, makes a comment on the world, offers insight into the human condition, challenges the status quo, puts a new twist on old idea, rethinks history, raises questions, highlights injustice, points out absurdity.

My reviews are opinionated, but evidence-based, which means I give reasons for my opinions, so you can estimate for yourself if I am being fair and reasonable. Many of these movies are not mainstream box office hits, but if you appreciate film as an art form, you will find a lot to like.

ISBN: 978-0-9837177-4-4 Price 0.99

TOC and Sample

Hunter and Hunted

Bridget Kemper, a Seattle businesswoman who hunts deer by archery for recreation, buys a prehistoric hunting artifact. But that does not establish her as a serious collector as she had hoped. Instead, she discovers the artifact is a forgery. She returns to the seller in Johannesburg only to find him murdered. Worse, somebody believes her artifact is genuine and wants it. She becomes the hunted. She could be the hunter if she knew who was after her, but her investigation is stymied when she is charged with the murder of the South African dealer. Can she beat extradition in time to find out who is trying to kill her and what happened to the real artifact?
ISBN 978-0-9837177-5-1. Approx. pages: 93.

Sample Chapter

Available at www.smashwords.com as an e-book formatted for all e-readers, tablets, desktops and mobile devices. Search on title, author, or ISBN. $0.99.

The Purpose of the Body

Mental experience occurs in the context of the physical body and is severely constrained by the body. What is the relationship between the mind, introspectively understood, and its extremely intimate but uncommunicative partner, the body?

This essay proposes that what is taken for granted as the self-existent, biological body is instead a concept, a projection of mentality. The physical body is a mistaken, or at least badly articulated conceptualization, by the linguistic and self-aware Social Self strand of consciousness, of the non-self-aware Sensorimotor Cycle strand of consciousness. From that confusion, the concept of the body is projected outward, away from subjectivity, and reified into a self-existent object.

But what then is the purpose of the body? Mentality needs its projection of embodiment to guarantee its psychological individuality, and thus its very survival. Is there any way this new thesis can be reconciled with the theory of evolution? Some suggestions are offered. Consequences of re-thinking the relationship of mind and body include a reconsideration of cognitive information processing, death, and metaphysics.

ISBN 978-0-9837177-3-7 Approx. pages: 65.

TOC and Preface

Order at www.smashwords.com for the Smashwords Edition, an e-book formatted for all e-readers, tablets, desktops and mobile devices. Search on title, author, or ISBN. $0.99.

Six Short Stories of Crime and Suspense

These six stories deal with topics from mass murder to sci-fi. Most involve a crime, usually murder but all are intended to be suspenseful. 

Shooters was stimulated by the shooting of Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords in Tucson.

 Stone Cross is about a bewildered couple who lose their foreclosed home and their dreams.

A local mechanic was reluctant to answer questions about how to sabotage a brake system, needed for Merely an Accident.

The Last Out finds humor in the emotionally difficult task of caring for elderly parents.

Warm Spots, set in Antarctica, explores a radical solution to global warming.

In Waved Through, immigrants are deported from Arizona, but their children are not.

ISBN 978-0-9837177-2-0   $0.99.

ISBN 978-0-9837177-2-0 Approx. pages: 35.
Sample

Order at www.smashwords.com for the Smashwords Edition, an e-book formatted for all e-readers, tablets, desktops and mobile devices. Search on title, author, or ISBN. $0.99.