Basic Concepts of Legal Thought -- George P. Fletcher

This book is basically a philosophy of law book. It is written for non-lawyers as an introduction to legal thinking and the law, but also for lawyers who want a deeper understanding of the philosophical background of their work. It is very broad in scope, very well written and provides quite a bit of insight into issues related to legal systems. I personally learned a lot about the law from the first page through to the end.

It is a quick read, being a relatively short book. The book is broken into three parts. Part I: The Legal System. Part II: Ultimate Values. Part III: Morality In The Law. These are further broken down into more refined elements. I think what is most interesting is the comparison of the Anglo-American legal system to other legal systems around the world. It is enlightening to someone who only has passing knowledge of our own system.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the law, philosophical foundations of the law, and interesting questions raised in the realm of the legal thought.

The Agony and the Ecstasy -- Irving Stone

This book was fantastic. It took me a while to read, but it was well worth it. I started looking up how to sculpt marble while reading it, that is how well it was written. It portrays the artist with such authority and such a breadth of knowledge that it feels as if you are right there beside him. Michelangelo's life is more than amazing, it verges on the unbelievable. If the works of art and the historical record did not exist, I would not believe such a fantastic tale about one man's life.

The style of the book is novelized biography. This was a new area for me, as I have only read biographies that were meant to be as such. Traditionally, they verge somewhat on the dry fact based novels that they are. Relaying important information and attempting to analyze the life being portrayed. Irving Stone accomplished this in the form of a novel. I had to constantly remind myself that what I was reading actually happened, that this was in fact a biography. Obviously, Stone had to take quite a few liberties with the story and fill in a lot of gaps. However, his ability to tie together the history with such a great story was truly a work of art in itself. I highly recommend this book as the definitive manner in which to enter the life of Michelangelo. His life was filled not only with great work, but also with great intrigue and fantastic stories. It does not disappoint anyone looking for a novel nor looking for a biography. It really does fill both needs simultaneously and thus look no further for either one.

The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan -- Robert Kanigel

I have wanted to read a book on Ramanujan ever since I heard the basic details of his life story. This book is everything I could have asked for. A complete account of the man's life, as well as everything else one might want to know about the times and places he lived. By this I mean, the book details the lives of those closest to Ramanujan as well as the culture in India and England at the time. It is written for the mathematically unsophisticated and is thus accessible to everyone. Even the layman can appreciate the amazing formulas that are presented and explained very well by the author.

I highly recommend this book to everyone. It gives insight into the workings of professional mathematicians which is something that I think non-mathematicians should be informed of. Further, to the mathematically oriented, this book gives insight into one of the most original and brilliant minds of the 20th century and possibly ever. Furthermore, this book is a wealth of information on the cultural aspects that affect academic achievement from the mid-19th century through to the present.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! -- Richard P. Feynman

So I guess I am reading biographies right now, but this was a really good one. I had always been meaning to read it, but I am glad in one sense that I waited until now. At least when he was talking about the ants in his Princeton room during grad school I could look at the ants in my Princeton room during grad school and it was kind of cool.

The first few chapters had me somewhat disappointed. I was not laughing out loud. His writing style was not at all what I expected. The stories didn't really grab me too much. But I am really glad I kept reading. As the book went on, I was thoroughly delighted with what I found. His stories are actually very funny at times but also gave insight into someone I think I could have really gotten along with. For example, when he talks about how he talked to Bohr and about why he stayed at Caltech, I could relate in my own way. Obviously in a much more limited and smaller way, but still it felt good. Even though I have not accomplished what he has nor do I feel I am at the same level intelligence right now, it is still refreshing to read the thoughts and anecdotes of someone you relate to on many levels.

I highly recommend this book for several reasons. To the scientist, this is a rare opportunity into the mind of a great one. To the non-scientist, this is a chance to see what science is about and that not all scientists are hiding in labs with thick glasses and no personality. The book is informative as much as it is funny, and it gets funnier as you go on. Additionally, it reads very quickly and because it gets harder and harder to put down as you go along, you find yourself very quickly on the last section and not wanting it to end.

American Prometheus -- Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of 20th century physics as well as the life of Robert Oppenheimer. This book also gives great insight into many of the interesting themes in America during the cold war. This reaches a climax with Dr. Oppenheimer's security hearing in 1954. It is actually difficult to talk about this book besides that it was highly informative and entertaining.

The fact that this man actually lived the life detailed in this book is amazing. His life reads more like some fantastic movie that is too improbable to be believable. I mean he was quintessential in the creation of the atomic bomb and the creation of one of the greatest theoretical physics departments in the world; and all the while the FBI had him under illegal surveillance. Just the names who he worked with are in themselves impressive: Bohr, Heisenberg, Feynman, Lawrence, Einstein, von Neumann, and the list goes on and on.

This book does not simply derive its value from the incredible highs and lows of Oppenheimer's life. Additionally, the extremely detailed and thorough scholarship and research that was put into this book makes history truly come alive. As objective as a biography can be and as well written as one could hope for. Once again, highly recommended.

Nanoconvergence: The Unity of Nanoscience, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science -- William Sims Bainbridge

I actually wrote a review of this on Amazon.com. That is how disgusted I was with this book. The problem is that the title was very enticing to me. I am extremely interested in the convergence of cognitive science, information technology and biotechnology. I suppose the concept of "nanoscience" interests me too, but the term is just so broad that I have trouble saying it without the quotes. I agree with many of the ideas in the book, although I could have written the entire intellectually interesting parts of this book in about 5 pages. The rest was fluff by a sociologist who really wishes he was smart enough to do real science. To the popular reader, he might seem like he actually knows what he is talking about, which is partially scary. The scariest part is that he is up near the top of the NSF, which basically shows how idiotic some of the people making political decisions are. Do not read this book if you can help it even though the title and the pretty cover picture make it seem so appealing. I hope to find some better book on the subject to recommend for this area of interest, but as of yet I do not know of one.

Economic Theory and Cognitive Science: Microexplanation -- Don Ross

I finally finished this book. This was by far the most technical philosophy book I have ever read. I spent half my time looking words up that were not even in the dictionary, words that I had to use Wikipedia to understand. The read was definitely arduous, however there was a good deal of substance to this book. I have been looking for someone to lay out philosophical issues related to economics and the interface between economics and cognitive science. This book performs this task quite well. Furthermore, the author puts forth his own hypothesis for what is happening inside our brain and mind. My take on his point of view is that human brains are composed of groups of neurons; these groups can be modeled as straightforward economic agents. These modules of neurons play coordination games in order to arrive at a specific utility structure to implement at a given time for the human as a whole. Over time however, as these games play out, the human as a whole can not be represented as your average rational agent, in the pure economic sense of this term. Moreover, we use public language and external pressures to scaffold our knowledge to overcome the computational challenges that such a paradigm presents.

I personally find this hypothesis appealing and ultimately close to the truth. I would only recommend this book to a trained philosopher or someone who is willing to look up words in every other sentence. The author does not define words, he rather attempts to give them meaning through context, but this does not work well. The economics is actually rather light, meaning the formal structure is not necessarily there. I liked this book for its overall theme and the way it reviews many other areas of thought pertaining to this subject.

Decisions, Uncertainty, and the Brain: The Science of Neuroeconomics -- Paul W. Glimcher

A fascinating book about the relatively new science known as neuroeconomics. The main thesis of the book is "that the fundamental limitation which neurobiology faces today is a failure to adequately incorporate probability theory into the approaches we use to understand the brain." The book basically begins with a ground up explanation of the history of neuroscience and mathematics (extremely abridged). The examples throughout the book make the ideas from the past and the hypothesis proposed by the author quite easy to understand. The book even includes some interesting pictures that illustrate certain experimental situations.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the brain, decision making, history of science or who just wants to expand their knowledge of how the world works. It is written at a level accessible to almost anyone, but is very illuminating to one with a bit of formal training.

The Myth of Sisyphus -- Albert Camus

Although the actual "Myth" is only 5 pages long, the preceding 115 pages lays the groundwork and is actually the intellectual meat of this piece of work. Essentially this is an exposition of existentialist thought, wherein Camus presents his own hypothesis of the world and then works to justify his claim. The actual Myth of Sisyphus is basically the story of Sisyphus who was sentenced to eternal push a rock up a hill only to have to let it fall back down and repeat the task. Camus presents this story and uses it to demonstrate the ideas he has developed in the opening text. The book is actually a somewhat complicated piece of philosophy and was thus rough as a pleasure read. One interesting quote that I found particularly moving was, "Every man has felt himself to be the equal of a god at certain moments. At least, this is the way it is expressed. But this comes from the fact that in a flash he felt the amazing grandeur of the human mind." The next sentence I separate but still quote because quite fascinating. "The conquerors are merely those among men who are conscious enough of their strength to be sure of living constantly on those heights and fully aware of that grandeur."

In summary, I recommend this book for anyone who is willing to put in the time to re-read a majority of the book in order to get most of the meaning. It is not an easy read but it is, I dare say, the best piece of work describing existential philosophy. A philosophy that I do not subscribe to myself, but I find the viewpoint nonetheless interesting.

Why Choose This Book? -- Read Montague

I am starting my PhD studies in the fall and I plan to focus my research along the lines of neuroeconomics, specifically optimal decision making under uncertainty from a neuroscience perspective. This book seemed to be the right thing to read for a general overview of what is known and what the open problems in the neuroscience field are. However, I was somewhat disappointed because of the overly general and simple tone of the book. It reminded me of Freakonomics in terms of composition. I suppose the book is written for the public and I know a little more than the public on this subject and wanted more detail so that could be the problem. Therefore, the book itself was good and presented a lot of interesting ideas. The main theme to me was that choice is a matter of valuation and cost. The brain is incredibly efficient at valuing choices and learning from the past and simulating the future. Therefore, reinforcement learning seems to model how the brain works. The author writes a lot about Turing and algorithms and how this applies to the brain. The whole book is interesting and recommended to non-experts or anyone looking for a quick and educational read.

Freakonomics -- Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

The picture is of the revised edition, I read the original edition of this book. After everyone telling me I should read this book and thus making me want to read it less, I was sitting around the house and it happened to be on my parents' bookshelf. So, I decided I would pick it up read it because it didn't look to long and the print was pretty big once I actually opened it. It took less than a day to read and was actually pretty entertaining. However, there are no deep truths in here or really anything too surprising. The central theme of the book seems to be that correlations exist all over in the world, but we must be careful not to confuse correlation and causation. To a scientist/mathematician/economist (I suppose that is what I am), this is an obvious point. But, people who have read this book still make that mistake because they just remember something about abortion, sumo wrestlers, teachers cheating, etc. They do not remember the fine details and hence commit the sin the book seems to be trying to prevent and start to say that X causes Y because they happen to be loosely correlated. I enjoyed the book as something quick and light. I would in fact recommended this book to those who did not study anything difficult in school, i.e. business majors, psychology majors, etc. To someone who knows a lot about the theory of regressions this book is just a nice little compiliation of interesting tidbits, but useless because most people I run into have either read the book or have been told all the little tidbits already.

The Fabric Of The Cosmos -- Brian Greene

Brian Greene has become one of my favorite authors because of the way he presents higher level physics to an inexperience audience, but still provides enough details in the footnotes to satisfy those of us with a little more mathematical training. I read his first book, "The Elegant Universe", when it came out a few years ago. This is a more complete work in my mind that covers almost everything in physics from Newton to the present. It really changed the way I think about certain physical systems that I had previously taken for granted. I have taken physics courses including quantum mechanics, and I have always thought that without the mathematics most of the meaning is lost and certainly it is usually harder for me to understand. However, in this book, several things were presented that I thought I already knew, but I saw them in a completely different light such that know I feel I have a much better understanding of what is going on. The future of physics, all science for that matter, is incredibly interesting and open for a wide variety of new ideas. This book opened my eyes to some of these ideas as well as explaining nearly all of the progress that has taken place so far. A must read for anyone who wants to understand the universe on a deeper level.

The Merchant of Power -- John F. Wasik

This was essentially a biography of Sam Insull, however it was more a biography of the electrification of Chicago and the world. I found this to be a fascinating book about the relationships that existed between some of the intellectual and financial giants of the late 19th and early 20th century. The most interesting part of the book is the fact that it sheds so much light on the importance and prominence of Sam Insull and yet he is all but unknown in popular culture. Many people know Edison, Tesla and Westinghouse, but have no knowledge of Insull. I found his rise to success and his continued drive throughout life to be somewhat motivational, for lack of a better term. His accomplishments were quite varied and he succeeded in almost everything he put his mind to. This book is also a tale of how government intervention and essentially jealously by lessor individuals ruined a great man. This is not unique to Sam Insull and it is sad to see, however it does provide a warning for future regualtion as well as a caution to up and coming inventors.