But the newest research is showing that many properties of the brain are genetically organized, and don't depend on information coming in from the senses.

Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind. Music depends on details of the auditory system, painting and sculpture on the visual system. Poetry and literature depend on language.

Why are empirical questions about how the mind works so weighted down with political and moral and emotional baggage?

All our behaviours are a result of neurophysiological activity in the brain. There is no reason to believe there is any magic going on.

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of... our mental faculties.

Evolutionary psychology is one of four sciences that are bringing human nature back into the picture.

Thanks to the redundancy of language, yxx cxn xndxrstxnd whxt x xm wrxtxng xvxn xf x rxplxcx xll thx vxwxls wxth xn "x" (t gts lttl hrdr f y dn't vn kn whr th vwls r)

Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.

Plants can't very well defend themselves by their behavior, so they resort to chemical warfare, and plants are saturated with toxins and irritants to deter creatures like us who want to eat them.

I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.

Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different.

Sometimes our whole life is all about, not letting the fire that burns our homes down become the light that guides us home.

With his blond hair, broad shoulders, and perpetual tan, Bryce looked like a California underwear model. Not that I’d thought about him in his underwear.Much.

You're not a nuthatch, Laurie.""Oh, but I am. I'm totally upside down. I'm a very backward kind of guy.

She is the weakness you think of as strength while I am the strength you have no idea is there.

I couldn't just get up every day and be miserable and complain.

Sweetheart," Bill said formally, "I have always loved you, and I will be proud to die in your service. When I'm gone, say a prayer for me in a real church.

I'm always excited to try something I haven't done.

The magistrate is the servant not of his own desires, not even of the people, but of his God

Every day when I get home from work, I feel so frustrated, my boss is a jerk.

Each man must create his own system or else he is a slave to another mans