Proust was a neuroscientist
"Quick book recommendation for you. I finished reading this about a week ago and it's still lingering in my thoughts. I always intend to blog the dogeared pages, but never get around to it. In a nutshell: Jonah Lehrer explores how artists from various disciplines and eras have pre-empted neuroscience by intuiting or reflecting particular parts of brain function. Lovely, accessible, thoughtful, a science book that embraces art and acknowledges the role it has to play in reflecting human experience. Perhaps most importantly, it also fully acknowledges the uncertainty at the heart of a lot of science, and how that brings it closer to art in a way we don't often recognise. Good stuff." - cowbite
Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
3people
2011–2025years
33% recommend33% neutral33% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I found David Eagleman's books, especially Incognito, to be really good introduction to how the brain works.
"Proust was a Neuroscientist" is a delightful look at how non-scientists throughout history (artists, dancers, writers) have intuited truths about how parts of the brain work that have since been proven by science.
- Absolutely mind/world-expanding. Thanks for sharing. The Swedish version reminds me of (the now "disgraced" but his Proust book is cool journalist) Lehrer's chapter on Virginia Woolfe in Proust Was a Neuroscientist, where he claims that "attention _is_ consciousness" in Woolf's then-novel stream of consciousness style in To the Lighthouse.
- Second that. Check out his Proust Was A Neuroscientist. Great framing, great idea...but in the end, no, Proust was not a neuroscientist, and the same goes for most else Lehrer has to say.
The whole premise of this piece doesn't make sense to me - coffee, whatever else is in Redbull - provide energy, not focus. That energy can be used to focus on something you don't want to focus upon. You also can let your mind wander at the frenetic pace stimulants like coffee, ADHD meds and others facilitate. So back to the beginning - Jonah Lehrer is very good at nicely framing a point that he isn't actually making.
