On Being Human: Why Mind Matters

A revered psychologist invites us to re-examine our thinking about controversial contemporary issues, from the genetic basis for behaviors to the functions of education

In this thought-provoking book, psychologist Jerome Kagan urges readers to sally forth from their usual comfort zones. He ponders a series of important nodes of debate while challenging us to examine what we know and why we know it. Most critically he presents an elegant argument for functions of mind that cannot be replaced with sentences about brains while acknowledging that mind emerges from brain activity.   
 
Kagan relies on the evidence to argue that thoughts and emotions are distinct from their biological and genetic bases. In separate chapters he deals with the meaning of words, kinds of knowing, the powerful influence of social class, the functions of education, emotion, morality, and other issues. And without fail he sheds light on these ideas while remaining honest to their complexity.  
 
Thoughtful and eloquent, Kagan’s On Being Human places him firmly in the tradition of Renaissance essayist Michel de Montaigne, whose appealing blend of intellectual insight, personal storytelling, and careful judgment has attracted readers for centuries.

• The Human Spark: The Science of Human Development
• Five Constraints on Predicting Behavior (The MIT Press)
• Psychology's Ghosts: The Crisis in the Profession and the Way Back
• The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
• The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures
• The Three Cultures: Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century
• Galen's Prophecy: Temperament In Human Nature