« A captivating interdisciplinary journey that bridges the gap between scientific questions and socio-political issues and reminds us to what extent the brain, body and environment form an inseparable system.
The three paragraphs that follow on this page are those that are also found on the back cover of the book. It was not easy to arrive at these and I will not hide from you that there were several back and forths between the publishing house and me to write this very short text. But hey, we arrive at this to describe and, I hope, give the taste to read our UFO!
And as Last week I revealed the identity of my co-author who is none other than my old friend Yvon D. Ranger.so today I can reproduce here his short biography which is on the back cover of the book, just like mine by the way.
Anti-capitalist activist Yvon D. Ranger is a journalist and filmmaker. From 2002 to 2014, he coordinated the independent satirical monthly The Squawkwhile making around twenty short films, five feature films and a web series, all with a political flavor.
Holder of a master’s degree in neurobiology from the University of Montreal, Bruno Dubuc is a popular science writer. Since 2002, he has hosted the website The brain at all levelsa reference both in the scientific community and among the general public. Since 2014, he has also been part of the collective behind theUpop Montrealwhose activities follow in the footsteps of popular universities.
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Finally, there are, still on the back cover of the book, two brief comments on the book (the Anglo-Saxons would speak of “praises”), one by Mathieu Landry, neuroscientist at the University of Montreal, and the other by Yves-Marie Abraham, sociologist and author of Healing from the evil of infinity. I am also copying them here for you, very happy and flattered that these two people whom I respect saw so many beautiful things there…
“A very playful and detailed exercise that perfectly highlights current conceptions of the human mind in relation to their different physiological substrates. A beautiful balance.” – Mathieu Landry
“For a long time I believed that I could do social sciences without being interested in the human brain. Not only did Bruno Dubuc’s masterpiece convince me that I was wrong, but it also provides everything needed to begin to correct this error.” – Yves-Marie Abraham
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I end once again, as I got used to two weeks agos, with a little “fun fact” taken from the book, just to distill a bit of content on this blog to whet your appetite.
“To better understand our thinking, this book adopts a resolutely evolutionary perspective. For example, we will not only show that we have cognitive biases, but especially why we have them. It is true that it takes longer to explain, but when we see better where they come from, we are better able to understand that cognitive biases are not just “flaws” in thinking, as they are often presented to us, but on the contrary, the deep roots of our thinking! Or in any case things that have had their uses during our long evolutionary history. Like the famous “confirmation bias” which has always helped us to offer a quick response that is often necessary, by favoring knowledge that has already proven its effectiveness in stable ancestral environments. And from which we will probably never completely free ourselves, like all our biological predispositions, because they are ” hard wired ” in our brains. But by understanding more deeply where they come from, we can better identify and work around them.”
