Visual Intelligence


Book Description

An engrossing guide to seeing—and communicating—more clearly from the groundbreaking course that helps FBI agents, cops, CEOs, ER docs, and others save money, reputations, and lives. How could looking at Monet’s water lily paintings help save your company millions? How can checking out people’s footwear foil a terrorist attack? How can your choice of adjective win an argument, calm your kid, or catch a thief? In her celebrated seminar, the Art of Perception, art historian Amy Herman has trained experts from many fields how to perceive and communicate better. By showing people how to look closely at images, she helps them hone their “visual intelligence,” a set of skills we all possess but few of us know how to use properly. She has spent more than a decade teaching doctors to observe patients instead of their charts, helping police officers separate facts from opinions when investigating a crime, and training professionals from the FBI, the State Department, Fortune 500 companies, and the military to recognize the most pertinent and useful information. Her lessons highlight far more than the physical objects you may be missing; they teach you how to recognize the talents, opportunities, and dangers that surround you every day. Whether you want to be more effective on the job, more empathetic toward your loved ones, or more alert to the trove of possibilities and threats all around us, this book will show you how to see what matters most to you more clearly than ever before. Please note: this ebook contains full-color art reproductions and photographs, and color is at times essential to the observation and analysis skills discussed in the text. For the best reading experience, this ebook should be viewed on a color device.




What It Is Like To Perceive


Book Description

Naturalistic cognitive science, when realistically rendered, rightly maintains that to think is to deploy contentful mental representations. Accordingly, conscious perception, memory, and anticipation are forms of cognition that, despite their introspectively manifest differences, may coincide in content. Sometimes we remember what we saw; other times we predict what we will see. Why, then, does what it is like consciously to perceive, differ so dramatically from what it is like merely to recall or anticipate the same? Why, if thought is just representation, does the phenomenal character of seeing a sunset differ so stunningly from the tepid character of recollecting or predicting the sun's descent? J. Christopher Maloney argues that, unlike other cognitive modes, perception is in fact immediate, direct acquaintance with the object of thought. Although all mental representations carry content, the vehicles of perceptual representation are uniquely composed of the very objects represented. To perceive the setting sun is to use the sun and its properties to cast a peculiar cognitive vehicle of demonstrative representation. This vehicle's embedded referential term is identical with, and demonstrates, the sun itself. And the vehicle's self-attributive demonstrative predicate is itself forged from a property of that same remote star. So, in this sense, the perceiving mind is an extended mind. Perception is unbrokered cognition of what is real, exactly as it really is. Maloney's theory of perception will be of great interest in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science.




Perceive This!


Book Description

"This book takes a clear, uncomplicated approach to bringing success into your life. Kevin Martin provides step-by-step instructions (and exercises) to aid anyone in attaining what they wish. With thoughtful examples, Mr. Martin highlights the essence of putting one's best foot forward, and reaching for goals in a sensible, yet positive, way. This is a great book for anyone wishing to embark on self-help as the 'kick-start' to bigger and better things in life. The book is written concisely and allows the reader to practice the suggestions contained within quickly as it lacks extraneously 'filler.' Highly recommended."-Mark Sivazlian, Worcester, MA "A certain path out of the maze of your circumstances and into an enriched and worthwhile life. Please read this book."-Margie Daye, Dallas, TX "In Perceive This! Mr. Martin has defined and simplified the concept of perception, and turned it into a practical, usable tool for anyone to use."-Dan Ballard, President, Ballard LLC Not just another self-help book, Perceive This! is a simple, easy-to-use, no-nonsense guide to building an outstanding quality of life. Filled with insightful quotes, essential concepts, easy to follow exercises, and comprehensive chapter reviews, Perceive This! is the ultimate manual for success in anything. Perceive This! Covers topics as: Setting your own expectations Why having a mission can make all the difference in your life Learning the real secrets of setting and achieving goals Building an unshakable Self-Esteem Taking your life to the next level Perceive This! contains the techniques that are needed by anyone who is looking to make a positive change in their lives, no matter how modest, or how grand.







Selections


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Complete Works


Book Description




The Collected Dialogues of Plato


Book Description

All the writings of Plato generally considered to be authentic are here presented in the only complete one-volume Plato available in English. The editors set out to choose the contents of this collected edition from the work of the best British and American translators of the last 100 years, ranging from Jowett (1871) to scholars of the present day. The volume contains prefatory notes to each dialogue, by Edith Hamilton; an introductory essay on Plato's philosophy and writings, by Huntington Cairns; and a comprehensive index which seeks, by means of cross references, to assist the reader with the philosophical vocabulary of the different translators.







A Family Disease


Book Description

Dana Creighton and her mother both were affected by the same inherited cerebellar degeneration, known as ataxia--a loss of control over body movements. Both were treated by a healthcare system that failed them in different ways. Yet their experiences were disparate. Creighton eventually found the right tools to piece together meaning in her life; her mother resisted accepting her condition, in part because doctors repeatedly said nothing was wrong with her. Twenty-five years after her mother's suicide, Creighton's memoir finds striking similarities and differences in their lives and traces a lineage of family trauma. Drawing on research in neuroplasticity, medical records, personal correspondence and genealogy, the author highlights the gap between the lived experience of a debilitating ailment and the impersonal aims of clinicians. She shows how the stories parents tell themselves about living with a genetic disorder influences how they communicate it to their children.




A Wild Constraint


Book Description

In A Wild Constraint: The Case for Chastity, Taylor addresses the provocative subject of celibacy. Too often considered an exclusively religious option, celibacy has been reclaimed by some feminists and sociologists over the last 20 years as a radical alternative in secular society to the liberal sexual lifestyle. What, after all, is sexual liberation when so often the outcome is pain and social chaos? In the context of promiscuity, sexual abuse and confusion, celibacy can herald a different sexual freedom. Jenny Taylor draws on personal experience and interviews with men and women of all ages to demonstrate the impact of the sexual revolution and to make a case for celibacy. She argues that celibacy is a viable alternative that deserves to be taken seriously and challenges the church to speak out for sexual abstinence with confidence and certainty.