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Every book Patrick House recommended on podcasts
Patrick House appeared on EconTalk to discuss consciousness, cognitive science, and human minds. During the conversation, House explained that the title and framing of his own work served as an homage to Eliot Weinberger's book 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, which focuses on an ancient Chinese poet from the eight-hundreds. House also brought up George Steiner's essay collection After Babel, using the late-twentieth-century author's insights on translation to illustrate his argument that all human language is fundamentally a form of translation, noting Steiner's observation that reading a poem from the fifteen-hundreds inherently reveals the barrier of linguistic evolution. Additionally, House referenced Thomas Nagel's famous philosophical paper and book What Is It Like to Be a Bat? while discussing the inherent differences between human minds and subjective experiences. Through these literary and philosophical references, House connected broader traditions of linguistics, translation theory, and philosophy of mind to contemporary scientific explorations of consciousness, neurological functioning, and the subjective nature of human thought, providing listeners with a rich interdisciplinary context for understanding complex mental phenomena.
Books recommended by Patrick House
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After Babel
After Babel by George Steiner is a profound critical study of language, meaning, and translation that argues all human communication and acts of interpretation fundamentally function as acts of translation.
Discussed“It's uh George Steiner, the essayist author from the last half of the 19th of the 20th century. Best thing writer has a book called After Babel, which talks about translation and basically says that when you read a poem from the 1500s, you can't understand it.”
Where to get it
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Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei
Discussed“Mostly it's it's the uh homage to this book that I read a long long time ago called uh 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, which was who who was a poet in I think 800s 800s China, an ancient Chinese poet.”
Where to get it
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What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
Thomas Nagel's philosophical essay What Is It Like to Be a Bat? explores the fundamental nature of consciousness and the limitations of physicalist explanations.
Discussed“Yeah, um, Tom Nagel's What Is It Like to Be a Bat? They're the kind of what I take to be the, uh, argument kind of”
Where to get it
Books Patrick House wrote
Appearances
| Episode | Podcast | Date | Books |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick House on Consciousness | EconTalk | 2022-12-05 | 3 |
Other mentions (1: passing, ad reads, own books)
“probably right now people are listening um or watching and thinking, 'Okay, 19 ways of looking at consciousness, say.'”