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Reviews elsewhere on the web:
Stevan Harnad
D. Weinberger

Paul Bloom

Descartes' Baby

Sometimes it's rather puzzling why people should believe what they do. In Descarte's Baby: How Child Development explains what makes us Human Paul Bloom looks at how we come by some of our thoughts and beliefs. He starts off by examining how children come to recognise the existence of other minds, followed by a look at how we make sense of objects around us - recognising whether or not they seem to be there for a purpose. There is also a discussion of how we get our sense of morality, and at when and why we might experience disgust. The book concludes with a look at our spiritual beliefs.

The most insightful chapter though is one on Art. Why should we ascribe great value to certain objects just because we are told that they are works of art. This is one of the most puzzling questions, but Bloom succeeds in finding a reasonable explanation - philosophy of art is clearly his area of expertise. I felt that the rest of the book didn't offer the same sort of insights, either from a philosophical or a child development point of view. But Bloom is an experienced writer, and puts forward his arguments in a very readable way, so if you're interested in why we believe what we do, and in particular in the way we think about art, then you should take a look at this book.

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Paperback 288 pages  
ISBN: 0465007864
Salesrank: 88272
Weight:0.66 lbs
Published: 2005 Basic Books
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Amazon.co.uk info
Paperback 288 pages  
ISBN: 0099437945
Salesrank: 135202
Weight:0.53 lbs
Published: 2005 Arrow Books Ltd
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Amazon.ca info
Paperback 288 pages  
ISBN: 0465007864
Salesrank: 182282
Weight:0.66 lbs
Published: 2005 Basic Books
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Product Description
All humans see the world in two fundamentally different ways: even babies have a rich understanding of both the physical and social worlds. They expect objects to obey principles of physics, and they're startled when things disappear or defy gravity. Yet they can also read emotions and respond with anger, sympathy, and joy.

In Descartes' Baby, Bloom draws on a wealth of scientific discoveries to show how these two ways of knowing give rise to such uniquely human traits as humor, disgust, religion, art, and morality. How our dualist perspective, developed throughout our lives, profoundly influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions is the subject of this richly rewarding book.

 
False Advertising *
This describes itself as "How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human" and there are a few cute little anecdotes about child development. But these are interspersed among long rambling philosophical discussions about what art critics and artists think is art and what philosophers, rabbis and the bible think is morality. It is like a little, anecdotal scientific information filled out with whatever else he can think of that is vaguely related. Read Stephen Pinker or Robert Wright instead.
 
all (beautiful and beastly) things human in a little book ****
I bought this book expecting to learn the essentials of child development, as an introduction to the field of developmental neuroscience I intend to seriously take on. And that's not what it is about. It is more like a total perspective of the aspects of human behavior which are innate, those which emerge in childhood, and those which are purely socially constructed through culture. So, surprisingly, I learned many interesting points about when the emotion of disgust at own feces emerges (around the age of 4), when sense of moral justice kicks in (already 3 year-olds can recognize what's morally good), and why art has its origins in the theory of mind.

It's a sweet holiday read as Bloom has an easy going, story-telling writing style I enjoyed a lot. As a scientist, I also appreciated the reference list to every piece of research he cites provided at the back of the book. I will definitely come back to some of the surprising facts he pointed me to.

The moral is that we are born beasts and develop abilities that enable social coexistence with brain maturation and social acculturation. This book delineates what comes first and what is prerequisite for what we'd regard as human qualities (e.g. empathy, morality, artistic appreciation) with great nonchalance alluding to the ungracious episodes of slavery, genocide and torture in our history, and abnormal development, such as autism.

I still feel quite unsaturated by this book, however, because it concentrates on the "beautiful" aspects of human nature - belief in God, art, morality - while it doesn't say much about the great drive behind our evolutionary success on this planet, namely the aggressiveness and adaptability. I suppose I can feed this hunger with some other literature and keep my memories of "Descartes' baby" as a delicious opulent desert.
 
Philosophic Leanings **
Although the author does discuss Descartes, and the author is brilliant, I have to say that, again, as with most books on philosophic studies and opinions, this presentation lacks the structural detail that a student might use to an advantage. Far too much bits and pieces, too much dialog not addressing Descartes really immature ventures in his method of finding self, which is not a self anyone sane would realize. Just, eh, brillant man, but who cares when Descartes is so limited in personal and creative consciousness.
 
Must-read for 21st century people ****
This is a brilliant and uncompromising synthesis of scientific knowledge about human nature and perception, stated with the confidence of a front-line investigator but also with sympathy for less rigorous world-views. Anyone who has ever asked 'Why are people like this?' should read this account in order to grasp what scientists take for granted. If the author was not able to explore the psychological appeal of religious belief fully, that is a lot to demand of a brief, well focused work.
 
Child psychologists ****
Day-old baby boys respond to entertaining mobiles of objects, while girls fasten on faces or even images of faces. Apart from the gender distinction, this early clue of infant awareness indicates infants enter the world with a running start on coping with life. They may not be able to articulate their methods in dealing with the world, but certain fundamentals are laid down and built upon. The most basic orientation of all is "self" and "everything else". For Bloom, this is a new form of "dualism".

Dualism is a philosophy attributed to 17th Century French philosopher Rene Descartes of "cogito ergo sum" fame. Cognitive scientists have rejected dualism in recent years, and Bloom's resurrection of the term may surprise some readers. The author explains at the outset that his version has deep evolutionary roots. These roots are seen in the way infants and children interact with the world. Living things, especially "Mum" and other family members, are quickly perceived as different from "objects". This awareness develops at various paces for different forms of interaction, but the result is that children are cognisant of human intent - the "soul" - fairly quickly and nearly effortlessly. They must be able to assess what other people will do and at some point develop understanding of the reasons for particular behaviours. This ability, a form of "mindreading", guides the child's response and personal behaviour. The "root" origins of this dualism, though favoured by Bloom, aren't really explained by this book. They're not even speculated on to any extent.

Bloom is at pains to reach a wide audience for a variety of reasons. The primary readership appears to be more new parents and less his academic colleagues. He works in his own family, particularly his sons. The two boys have the advantages of being both different in age and in temperament. He's not beyond a small shock when it suits, as when he claims one son had transgressed every "sin" but "lust" by the age of four. He examines the characters of "Star Trek", especially the "logical" Mr Spock and the emotionless android "Data", to compare with emotional humans. Other film and TV series characters are offered as examples of many aspects of our feelings and behaviours. The expression of emotions, which bloom examines at some length, become indicators of the human possession of a "soul".

It is Bloom's dealing with the "soul" that erodes this book's value. Part of that broad audience, [parents all ?], will be various types of "the faithful". These folks are keen to arrive, soul intact, in some afterlife. They wish it even more for their children [except when the latter misbehave]. To deny this possibility would see the book languish on store shelves. Bloom dances about the question of the afterlife by declaring that the "physical soul" [whatever that is] cannot survive death. The door remains wide open for other forms of "soul" - simply fill in your favoured definition. The point of this dodging is that Bloom doesn't want to define "soul", while wishing to retain its use as shorthand for the vast panoply of mental experiences humans have in life. So, what happens to those experiences after death, the author leaves to reader prejudice and interpretation. It's a difficult term to deal with in any circumstance. Bloom fails to either clarify or simplify the task.

Although Bloom has examined a wealth of research and non-academic works to assemble a coherent package, the book remains a shining example of "pop" psychology - especially child psychology. While there is a great deal of good information in this book, there are serious gaps that aren't even clearly indicated. He understands clinical research and its value, but once more a scholar pandering to a limited audience relies on research performed solely on a single society. Yet, he blithely stresses the "universality" of behavioural characteristics. Children's attitudes about gods and the afterlife may be universal, but we can't know until we've queried more kids - especially those in different cultures. Even in cultures as near as Europe, there are distinct differences in the way children view some of the topics Bloom addresses. It's a pity he didn't read about them. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
 
Is growing up *****
The idea of an immaterial soul somehow connected to our physical bodies is hard to resist, and not just because it lies at the heart of many religions or because of great thinkers such as Descartes. We all begin life as "natural-born dualists" who "see the world as containing both physical things, which are governed by principles such as solidity and gravity, and immaterial minds, which are driven by emotions and goals." Even those of us who grow up to accept that "we are material beings" - "that the conscious self arises from a purely physical brain" - still use the language of dualism in phrases like "my brain". Throughout this brilliant book Paul Bloom describes these intuitions and challenges some of our most basic assumptions, drawing on discoveries from developmental psychology, clinical research and neuroscience to show the many ways in which we "understand and respond to the minds of other people."

"Babies prefer to look at faces more than just about anything else" and, by their first birthday, they are social beings. Before their second birthday, children "not only understand that people have desires, they also know that others' desires might differ from their own." Three-year-olds can tell the difference between an intentionally and an accidentally created object - they can "think about things in terms of design and purpose" and are beginning to display the "promiscuous teleology" that both enhances and frustrates our understanding of the world. Four-year-olds typically succeed at the "false-belief task" in which they must "reason about another actor's mental state." To pass this test, "you have to hold in your mind two conflicting pictures of the world": the world as it really is and the world as it is imagined by someone else. Throw into the mix the acquisition of language and we can see just how much is going on in those first few years.

It's hardly surprising that child development doesn't always run smoothly. Autistic children, for example, typically show impairments in communication and imagination and, most of all, "in the ability to interact appropriately with others." Psychologists have coined the term "mindblindness" to describe the most extreme form of autism, in which "people are seen as nothing more than objects". Bloom recounts an experience while working with autistic children as a teenage counsellor: "a severely impaired seven-year-old boy walked up to me and placed his hands on my shoulders" in what appeared at first to be a spontaneous act of affection. But then "he tightened his grip, jumped up... and started to climb". The boy was using Bloom as a ladder.

While autistic brains respond to faces as if they were objects, normal brains have a "tendency to ascribe intention to inanimate objects" - we anthropomorphize. Babies can ascribe mental states to geometrical shapes that are moving in a purposeful way and "young children are prone to see much of the physical and biological world as existing for a purpose, consisting of artifacts created by a divine designer". Even sophisticated theologians are seduced by "the argument from design". Resistance to Darwin's theory of natural selection - which explains "complex and adaptive design without positing a divine designer" - is not only rooted in scripture but in our psychology: we are "so hypersensitive to signs of agency that we see intention where all that really exists is artifice or accident".

This essentialist way of thinking - ascribing to objects "a nature that transcends their appearance" - "appears to be a basic component of how we think about the world". It "drives us to search for the deeper nature of things" and perhaps underpins our near universal religious impulse as well as our natural curiosity about the world. Modern science, however, is often counterintuitive: evolutionary theory, for example, "violates hardcore essentialism, as it conflicts with the notion that species have immutable essences (they do not, they evolve)".

These fascinating insights into what makes us human prepare the ground for Bloom to explore the idea "that the roots of morality are innate" rather than handed down on tablets of stone. Empathy, for example, emerges very early, and "by the time children are about two years of age, they care about others and will act to make them feel better." Within another year the child gets truly moral and can experience pride, shame and guilt. As we grow and mature, our "enhanced social intelligence allows us to reason about how other people will act and react in situations that do not yet exist, so as to plan and assess the consequences of our own actions." Seeing these situations "from another person's point of view" is crucial for our moral sense.

Eventually, unless trapped by narrow religious or social custom, we "come to transcend our innate, parochial, moral sense" and seek ways to expand "the original moral circle" defined by "kin selection and reciprocal altruism". One hugely important endpoint of such a process is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which represents tremendous moral progress. "In both morality and science, each generation has the advantage of the insights of all the generations that have come before" (contradicting writers like John Gray, who have a rather more dismal view of humanity).

Some consider the Golden Rule to be the pinnacle of moral achievement, forgetting that such a crude principle is compatible with, for example, slavery, "so long as you restrict the moral circle so that the Golden Rule does not apply to those you would take as slaves". The good news is that we can work towards expanding our moral circle, through recognizing our mutual interdependence, having increased contact with diverse groups, persuading with images and stories, and gathering moral insight. Bloom admits that, for some, the "notion that our souls are flesh is profoundly troubling" but he ends on a positive note: "only now, with the converging work of philosophers, psychologists, and evolutionary theorists, is it possible to be a morally optimistic materialist."
 
Roots of the infantile *****
This is a brilliant account of how children naturally develop a divided view of the world, with minds or souls or spirits leading a separate life from bodies. Bloom describes many fascinating experiments, some of them ingeniously showing what infants think even before they can talk. It is all presented and discussed clearly with minimal resort to technical terms. My only quarrel - a small one - is with the title. Descartes invented a very unnatural dualism, which forbids spirits from interfering in any way with physical things. Children believe all too easily in witchcraft and magic and all kinds of hocus pocus, and many of them grow up into adults who imagine that disease and disaster are God's punishment for the sins of the people.
 
Easy to read ***
This book is generally easy and entertaining to read.

Although I am not sure how scientific the scientific tests are as quoted in the book, the pool of samples seem to be inadequate to represent a general population - the observation on babies is interesting and is definitely hard to justify, but, for example, to claim that most adult would have thought a ball shooting out of a C-shaped tube is going to have a circular projection is rather unbelievable.
 
witty, entertaining, interesting *****
Engaging and funny cognitive scientist Paul Bloom's second book is a fascinating read. In it, he argues that we are wired to view the world as containing both bodies and souls. Bloom argues convincingly that it is for this reason, that even when the idea of psychophysical dualism clashes with our intellectual understanding of bodies and souls, we still maintain vestiges of a belief in the immaterial soul. His discussions of a huge range of fascinating issues make this book a must-read.

Descartes' Baby is incredibly fun to read, and is smattered with bits of humor and amusing anecdotes about real children and adults. Indeed, one of the most humorous moments in this lively book is Bloom's account of a neuroscientist colleague's culinarily-motivated search for animals without a certain neural structure, because, he reasoned, animals without this certain structure surely didn't have consciousness and therefore we safe to eat.

Another strength of the book is Bloom's treatment of disgust. His view is both interesting and nuanced and falls naturally from his argument that we are intuitive dualists at heart. Other high points are his discussion of art and forgery, and his quite funny discussion of humor.

It's not often that I read nonfiction. Normally I find it either too pedantic or too technical and narrow in scope to appeal to an outsider. One of the tremendous strengths of this book is that someone without training in developmental psychology or philosophy can follow it with ease, while still finding it intellectually satisfying.

This book is truly a gem -- both entertaining and important. It's a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered about human nature.

 
A lively, entertaining, interesting read *****
Engaging and funny cognitive scientist Paul Bloom's second book is fascinating. In it, he argues that we are wired to view the world as containing both bodies and souls. Bloom argues convincingly that it is for this reason, that even when the idea of psychophysical dualism clashes with our intellectual understanding of bodies and souls, we still maintain vestiges of a belief in the immaterial soul. His discussions of a huge range of fascinating issues make this book a must-read.

Descartes' Baby is not just informative, but is smattered with bits of humor and amusing anecdotes about real children and adults. Indeed, one of the most humorous moments in this lively book is Bloom's account of a neuroscientist colleague's culinarily-motivated search for animals without a certain neural structure, because, he reasoned, animals without this certain structure surely didn't have consciousness and therefore we safe to eat.

Another strength of the book is Bloom's treatment of disgust. His view is both interesting and nuanced and falls naturally from his argument that we are intuitive dualists at heart. Other high points are his discussion of art and forgery, and his quite funny discussion of humor.

It's not often that I read nonfiction. Normally I find it either too pedantic or too technical and narrow in scope to appeal to an outsider. One of the tremendous strengths of this book is that someone without training in developmental psychology or philosophy can follow it with ease, while still finding it intellectually satisfying.

This book is truly a gem -- both entertaining and important. It's a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered about human nature.

 
Non-existence of the soul ****
The name of this rather fascinating book is somewhat misleading: there is not too much in this book about child's psychology and a lot about psychology in general. Mr. Bloom, who is evidently a professional psychologist himself, created a very readable fusion of psychology, evolutionary biology and great multitude of historical and scientific facts.

When reading I could not stop recollecting myself as a child and juxtaposing the facts from the book with episodes from my childhood. For example, Mr. Bloom describes kids' imagining of God. As per one of the studies, they think that God is a human like creature with a voice and a face. Many kids in my kindergarten shared their vision of God in similar terms, but I remember a debate (if you can call it that) between other kids and me when we were arguing if God was a man or a woman. For some reason, the majority of kids were absolutely convinced that God was a man even though they could not explain why. The vision of God was changing with age - when I was a student, my professor of a set theory told me that God was infinity in its most abstract version. He was absolutely serious about that.

The book is practically infested with a great deal of facts and citations, which eloquently illustrate author's points. I have to admit that the author reminds me of Borges in this regard, whom he also mentions when describing some aspects of how human memory functions. Some of such illustrations are quite unusual. For example, when discussing the art and its role in human life, Mr. Bloom mentions a weird habit of Aristotle Onassis to have his barstools upholstered with the scrota of killer whales. Many might find it unusual at least and disgusting at most but it does perfectly illustrate how different human beings are in demonstration of status and power. The same is applicable to the description of Goya's painting SATURN DEVOURING HIS SON. After I read about Mr. Bloom's experience when he was admiring this painting in Madrid, I found reproduction of this artwork in the Internet and become very puzzled of how can it be anyhow enjoyable.

The last chapter of the book left me disappointed. Not because of the text itself, which was a very good reading throughout the whole book, but because of Mr. Bloom's verdict regarding factual non-existence of the soul. It is really hard to deal with such an approach, especially when formulated by a competent scientist like Mr. Bloom. I wonder how Mr. Bloom himself is dealing with this shocking discrepancy. He might be explaining it in his following book. Hopefully.

 
Embarrassing, disgusting, and immoral *****
Paul Bloom explains how it is that humans come to feel embarrassment, disgust, or moral revulsion (among other things). He argues that these feeling can be traced to our earliest development, in which we learn about the properties of objects and other people. These parallel developments interact to result in special feelings towards certain objects such as great works of art or decaying meat. Although feelings of embarrassment and disgust may not be limited to humans, he argues that without even negative emotions and feelings, we would not be fully human.

The book is full of witty and fascinating anecdotes, as well as thought-provoking questions. The first chapters lay the groundwork by reviewing recent findings about the development of infants. The book steadily gains in interest as these findings form the groundwork for intriguing discussions of emotion, morality, and religion.

Although the author is apparently a professor at Yale, the book can be read by anyone who is interested in children or in how we end up the way we are. In fact, as I got further and further into it, I could not put it down.

 
A fantastic book! *****
Engaging and funny cognitive scientist Paul Bloom's second book is a fascinating read. In it, he argues that we are wired to view the world as containing both bodies and souls. Bloom argues convincingly that it is for this reason, that even when the idea of psychophysical dualism clashes with our intellectual understanding of bodies and souls, we still maintain vestiges of a belief in the immaterial soul. His discussions of a huge range of fascinating issues make this book a must-read.

Descartes' Baby is incredibly fun to read, and is smattered with bits of humor and amusing anecdotes about real children and adults. Indeed, one of the most humorous moments in this lively book is Bloom's account of a neuroscientist colleague's culinarily-motivated search for animals without a certain neural structure, because, he reasoned, animals without this certain structure surely didn't have consciousness and therefore we safe to eat.

Another strength of the book is Bloom's treatment of disgust. His view is both interesting and nuanced and falls naturally from his argument that we are intuitive dualists at heart. Other high points are his discussion of art and forgery, and his quite funny discussion of humor.

It's not often that I read nonfiction. Normally I find it either too pedantic or too technical and narrow in scope to appeal to an outsider. One of the tremendous strengths of this book is that someone without training in developmental psychology or philosophy can follow it with ease, while still finding it intellectually satisfying.

This book is truly a gem -- both entertaining and important. It's a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered about human nature.

 
Fascinating, Lively and Fun Read *****
This is a Terrific book. It is written in a lively, accessible style, yet says some serious things about what it is to be human. The author's main point is that we have two very different ways of viewing and thinking about reality: in terms of the physical world of material bodies, and in terms of the social world of people. He suggests that these two viewpoints often collide in interesting and surprising ways, to unique effect, to explain such things about human nature as: Why slapstick humor is funny; why we consider some things (such as certain sex acts, for example) to be disgusting; the nature of human morality and why our 'moral circle' has expanded through history; the ubiquity of religious thought; and other things fundamental to being human. To support his explanations, he draws extensively on recent findings in developmental psychology, showing us that how children think and develop tells us a lot about human nature. This is a serious, intelligent book that makes some deep, genuinely creative new insights into the complex nature of human psychology.

If you're interested in human nature, child development, or cognitive science, you will find this book full of fascinating information and provocative ideas. Finally, it is just plain fun reading!

 
Superb-Written with great clarity, grace and intelligence *****
This is an amazing book. It is written with great clarity, insight, and humor while at the same time preserving scientific and conceptual rigor-a very rare combination indeed. How often is one lucky enough to pick up a book covering complex issues in science and philosophy and find that it is so riveting that one stays up all night reading it?
Bloom addresses one of the deepest and most profound issues of what makes us human, our tendencies to see others as comprised of utterly distinct bodies and minds, that is the dualism of Descartes. While modern philosophers and cognitive scientists may largely reject dualism, the rest of us , and even those philosophers and scientists in their less reflective moments, embrace dualism so completely that it colors every aspect of our interpretations of others and of their activities.
Bloom's book brilliantly shows how this dualism is not some late emerging impression made by one's culture or society, instead it is a fundamental part of how our minds are built, and can be seen in rudimentary forms even in infancy. He explains how it emerges and why it makes sense that we should all be endowed with this assumption, even if it is in many ways severely misleading. He shows how our dualism explains an extraordinary range of otherwise puzzling phenomena in domains as diverse as disgust, art forgery, humor, religion and altruism. Bloom is a leading researcher on the development of children's minds who is also an award winning writer; and this book shows how these two skills can mutually reinforce each other in ways that create fascinating, enlightening, and engaging reading. Any one interested in children, in cognitive science, or simply in human nature, will find themselves adoring this book. This book is science writing at its very best.

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