Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer’s Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience
Cerebrum November 1, 2017 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA book review describes how two friends—a Buddhist monk with a background in molecular biology and a distinguished neuroscientist—offer their perspectives on the mind, self, consciousness, the unconscious, free will, epistemology, meditation, and neuroplasticity. The review notes that Buddhism has pursued direct investigation of the mind through introspection for two millennia, while neuroscience relies on third-person scientific observation. The book presents dialogues between these two approaches, examining how each tradition can inform the other.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Book review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Philosophy Medicine |
| Key finding | The book presents two perspectives—Buddhist and neuroscientific—on topics including the mind, self, consciousness, and meditation. |
Abstract
Editor’s Note Buddhism shares with science the task of examining the mind empirically. But Buddhism has pursued, for two millennia, direct investigation of the mind through penetrating introspection. Neuroscience, on the other hand, relies on third-person knowledge in the form of scientific observation. In the book that is the subject of this review, two friends, one a Buddhist monk trained as a molecular biologist, and the other, a distinguished neuroscientist, offer their perspectives on the mind, the self, consciousness, the unconscious, free will, epistemology, meditation, and neuroplasticity.