Books like How the Mind Works

01

The Language Instinct

Steven Pinker · Science

The Language Instinct is Steven Pinker's argument that language is not a cultural invention but a biological instinct — a specialized module in the human brain that evolved by natural selection, much as the eye evolved to see or the hand evolved to grasp.

Both dig into cognition.

02

The Better Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker · Science

The Better Angels of Our Nature is Steven Pinker's argument, supported by extensive historical and statistical data, that human violence has declined dramatically over long time periods and that this decline is real, not an artifact of reporting or perception.

A kindred science read.

03

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Jonathan Haidt · Psychology

The Righteous Mind is Jonathan Haidt's argument that moral reasoning is not the source of our moral judgments — it's the press secretary for them.

A kindred science read.

04

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred science read.

05

Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Robert M. Sapolsky · Science

Behave is Robert Sapolsky's attempt to explain why humans do what they do — the violence, the altruism, the tribalism, the heroism — by working through every layer of biology that contributes to a single act.

A kindred science read.

06

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Daniel J. Levitin · Science

Daniel Levitin came to neuroscience from the music industry — he was a record producer who worked with Stevie Wonder, the Grateful Dead, and Blue Öyster Cult before getting a PhD in psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Shares evolutionary psychology and perception with How the Mind Works.

07

The Dragons of Eden

Carl Sagan · Science

The Dragons of Eden, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1978, is Carl Sagan's exploration of the evolution and nature of human intelligence.

Shares cognition and consciousness with How the Mind Works.

08

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

V. S. Ramachandran · Science

The Tell-Tale Brain is V.

Shares perception and consciousness with How the Mind Works.

09

Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett · Philosophy

Consciousness Explained is Daniel Dennett's attempt to replace what he calls the Cartesian Theater — the intuitive picture of consciousness as a single unified stream of experience observed by a self — with a model he calls Multiple Drafts.

Shares cognition and consciousness with How the Mind Works.

10

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind

V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee · Psychology

V.

Shares perception and consciousness with How the Mind Works.

11

Why Buddhism Is True

Robert Wright · Religion & Spirituality

Why Buddhism Is True is Robert Wright's argument that modern evolutionary psychology and neuroscience provide independent confirmation for core Buddhist claims about the mind, suffering, and the nature of the self.

Shares evolutionary psychology and consciousness with How the Mind Works.

12

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures

Merlin Sheldrake · Science

Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist who has spent his career studying fungi, and Entangled Life is his account of what fungi are, what they do, and why most people who think they know something about the natural world understand almost nothing about this kingdom of life.

Both dig into consciousness.