Mental immunity : infectious ideas, mind-parasites, and the search for a better way to think Cover Image

Book

Mental immunity : infectious ideas, mind-parasites, and the search for a better way to think / Andy Norman ; with a foreword by Steven Pinker.

Norman, Andy, (author.). Pinker, Steven, 1954- (writer of foreword.).

Summary:

COVID denial persists in the face of overwhelming evidence. Anti-vaxxers compromise public health. American Nazis march openly in the streets. Flat Earth theory is back. Norman shows that these phenomena share a root cause: We live in a time when the so-called "right to your opinion" is thought to trump our responsibilities. Minds and cultures really do have immune systems, and they really can break down. Fortunately, they can also be built up. Norman calls for a rigorous science of mental immune health, and explains how it could revolutionize our capacity for critical thinking. -- adapted from jacket

Record details

ISBN: 9780063002982 (hardcover)
ISBN: 0063002981 (hardcover)
ISBN: 9780063138896 (paperback)
ISBN: 0063138891 (paperback)
Physical Description: xiii, 397 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : Harper Wave, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2021]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Foreword / by Steven Pinker -- Introduction: Tree of life, seeds of death -- Beyond critical thinking : why existing approaches are failing us -- The cognitive immunology toolbox : naming the problem -- The widening gyre : why mental immune systems collapse -- Six immune-disruptive ideas : ... and their antidotes -- Fighting monsters : ... without becoming one yourself -- The ethics of faith : what is responsible belief? -- Thought police need not apply : how (not) to regulate belief -- Reason's fulcrum : the peculiar magic of reasons -- Reason unhinged : how thinking becomes ideological -- Mind upgrade : can we update the brain's operating system? -- Seductive misconceptions : how rationalism lost its way -- The mind vaccine : rethinking reason's requirements -- Conclusion. Propagating enlightenment : how to bend the arc of history.