The Obvious Subliminal Animal

What does Macy know that nobody else does?

At the all-HSA meeting held March 11th in the North Lounge, Honors students who attended the meeting took a survey that will help us identify ways that we can maximize our program's effectiveness. Students enrolling in EQ 3 for the Fall 2013 semester were also invited to help choose the text for the 2013 SummerRead, which EQ1 and EQ 3 students will read next year.

The three candidates on the SummerRead ballot are all non-fiction texts published within the last three years. These particular texts were recommended by the EQ faculty because they bridge the humanities/sciences gap in some way and are available for under $20. So what'll it be? Stay tuned for the results.

Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us by Duncan J. Watts. 2011.
A sociologist with a degree in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell, author Duncan J. Watts “shows how common sense reasoning and history conspire to mislead us into believing that we understand more about the world of human behavior than we do; and in turn, why attempts to predict, manage, or manipulate social and economic systems so often go awry” (amazon.com) Everything is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us offers a scientific challenge to the non-scientific common-sense approach that many bring to academic study.


 
 



Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow. 2012. 
Caltech theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow’s Subliminal draws on neurological research to argue that “the way we experience the world--our perception, behavior, memory, and social judgment--is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed” (amazon.com). Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior offers a scientific challenge to the belief that we know why we believe things.

 
 

 The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall. 2012. 
An American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution, Gotschall writes books “at the intersection of science and art” (amazon.com). Drawing on research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, The Storytelling Animal argues that “storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure human survival” (amazon.com). Offering an account of“storytelling” (aka “literature”) in the context of evolution (a major theme in EQ3), The Storytelling Animal offers the clearest bridge between the humanities/sciences of all the candidates.