Recommeded Literature

Unpopular Essays (B. Russell)

Sceptical Essays (B. Russell)

Consciousness Explained (D. Dennett)

Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (D. Dennett)

Tales of the Rational: Skeptical Essays About Nature and Science (M. Pigliucci)

Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (D. Dennett)

Kinds of Minds (D. Dennett)

Content and Consciousness (D. Dennett)

Letter to a Christian Nation (S. Harris)

The Anti-Christ (F. Nietzsche)

The Age of American Unreason (S. Jacoby)

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism (S. Jacoby)

The Science of Good & Evil (M. Shermer)

Beyond Good and Evil (F. Nietzsche)

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (C. Sagan)

The Dragons of Eden (C. Sagan)

Thus Spoke Zarathustra (F. Nietzsche)

Micromegas (Voltaire)

Cosmos (C. Sagan)

The Art of War (Sun Tzu)

Le Petit Prince (Antoine de Saint Exupéry)

Fahrenheit 451(R. Bradbury)

The Stranger (A. Camus)

The Canterbury Tales (G. Chaucer)

Jump! and Other Stories (N. Gordimer)

A Brief History of Time (S. Hawking)

Animal Farm (G. Orwell)

Candide (Voltaire)

1984 (G. Orwell)

Don Quixote (M. de Cervantes)

The God Delusion (R. Dawkins))

Brave New World (A. Huxley)

Island (A. Huxley)

Erewhon (S. Butler)

Utopia (T. More)

Demian (H. Hesse)

Human, All Too Human (F. Nietzsche)

Ecce Homo (F. Nietzsche)

Twilight of the Idols (F. Nietzsche)

The Gay Science (F. Nietzsche)

Our Inner Ape (F. de Waal)

Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life (S. Johnson)

Agnosticism and Christianity

Why I Am Not a Christian (B. Russell)

Catch-22

Elbow Room (D. Dennett)

I Am a Strange Loop (D. Hofstadter)

Mapping the Mind

How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God (M. Shermer)

God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (C. Hitchens)

The Descent of Man (C. Darwin)

The Extended Phenotype (R. Dawkins)

The Origin of Species (C. Darwin)

The Voyage of the Beagle (C. Darwin)

Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are (J. LeDoux)

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life (J. Ledoux)

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force (J. M. Schwartz & S. Begley)

The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution (S. A. Kauffman)

Of Molecules and Men (F. Crick)

Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind (J. Dispenza)

Viruses of the Mind (R. Dawkins)

Brainchildren (D. Dennett)

Brainstorms (D. Dennett)

The Mind’s I (D. Dennett & D. Hofstadter)

Freedom Evolves (D. Dennett)

Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul (F. Crick)

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (F. Crick)

Evolution and Ethics (T. Huxley)

An Anatomy of Thought

Cat’s Cradle (K. Vonnegut)

Slaughterhouse Five (K. Vonnegut)

The Sirens of Titan (K. Vonnegut)

The Odyssey

Society of Mind (M. Minsky)

Siddhartha (H. Hesse)

Principles of Neural Science (E. Kandel)

A Man Without a Country (K. Vonnegut)

Broca’s Brain (C. Sagan)

On Human Nature (E.O. Wilson)

Biology and the Foundation of Ethics (J. Maienschein and M. Ruse)

The River Out of Eden (R. Dawkins)

The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design (R. Dawkins)

Billions and Billions (C. Sagan)

The Varieties of Scientific Experience (C. Sagan)

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (C. Sagan)

Pale Blue Dot (C. Sagan)

Philosophical Investigations (L. Wittgenstein)

The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales

The Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist (R. Feynman)

Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman (R. Feynman)

War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires (P. Turchin)

Open Society and Its Enemies (K. Popper)

The Logic of Scientific Discovery (K. Popper)

The Problems of Philosophy (B. Russell)

A History of Western Philosophy (B. Russell)

Religion and Science (B. Russell)

Marriage and Morals (B. Russell)

The Impact of Science on Society (B. Russell)

The Scientific Outlook (B. Russell)

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (B. Russell)

Inquiry into Meaning and Truth (B. Russell)

The Conquest of Happiness (B. Russell)

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason (S. Harris)

The Denial of Death (E. Becker)

Genealogy of Morals (F. Nietzsche)

Is God a Virus?: Genes, Culture, and Religion (J. Bowker)

The Religion Virus (C. James)

Tao Te Ching

The Art of War (Sun Tzu)

How the Mind Works (S. Pinker)

The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (S. Pinker)

The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language (S. Pinker)

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (S. Pinker)

Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure (Learning, Development, and Conceptual Change) (S. Pinker)

Language Learnability (Cognitive Science Series) (S. Piinker)

Conversations on Consciousness (S. Blackmore)

Cognition and Symbols (Cognition Special Issue) (S. Pinker)

Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology

Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation (D. Davidson)

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (S. Huntington)

Europe: A History (N. Davies)

Augustus: The Life of Rome’s First Emperor (A. Everitt)

Imagined Worlds (F. Dyson)

Crowds and Power (E. Cannetti)

Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life (S. Bok)

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (R.B. Cialdini)

Honor: A History (J. Bowman)

Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition

The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge (J.P. Changeux)

Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life (A. Dacey)

A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love (R. Dawkins)

The Selfish Gene (R. Dawkins)

The Destructive Power of Religion: Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (J.H. Ellens)

Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self

The Mind’s Past

Cortex and Mind: Unifying Cognition

The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (E. Goffman)

Interaction Ritual – Essays on Face-to-face Behavior (E. Goffman)

Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (W. Heisenberg)

From Stimulus to Science (W.V. Quine)

The Oxford Companion to the Mind

Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and its Quarrels with Science

Moral Minds: How Nature Designed our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy

Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others

History of Christianity (P. Johnson)

In Search of Memory (E. Kandel)

The Principles of Neural Science (E. Kandel)

The Age of Spiritual Machines (R. Kurzweil)

The Problem of the Soul: Two Visions of Mind and How to Reconcile Them

The End of the World: The Science and Ethics of Human Extinction

Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st Century

Morality without Foundations: A Defense of Ethical Contextualism (M. Timmons)

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive (N. Goldstein)

Self-Deception Unmasked (A. Mele)

How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter

On the Eve of Millennium: the Future of Democracy Throughout an Age of Unreason (C. O’Brien)

Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century (J. Glover)

Where is Science Going? (M. Planck)

Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge (B. Wallace)

Analysis of Mind (B. Russell)

Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (B. Russell)

Authority and the Individual (B. Russell)

Has Man a Future (B. Russell)

Power: A New Social Analysis (B. Russell)

Why Orwell Matters (C. Hitchens)

Letters to a Young Contrarian (C. Hitchens)

Essays in Radical Empiricism (W. James)

Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius

Portraits from Memory (B. Russell)

Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles, and the Frailty of Knowledge

Mind, Language, and Society: Philosophy in the Real World

The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World (C. McGinn)

The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities

Self-Deception (H. Fingarette)

Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception (D. Goleman)

Destructive Emotions: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama (D. Goleman)

The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness (D. Goleman)

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill (M. Ricard and D. Goleman)

Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence (D. Goleman)

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships (D. Goleman)

Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (D. Goleman)

Working with Emotional Intelligence (D. Goleman)

Five Minds for the Future (H. Gardner)

On Certainty (L. Wittgenstein)

Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions

Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain

Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human

Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation

Consciousness and its Objects

Faking It (W.I. Miller)

Living High & Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence

Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

The Illusion of Conscious Will

When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery

Dark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior

Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning

American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (C. Hedges)

Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement

The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor

God and Gold: Britain, America, and the Making of the Modern World (W. Mead)

A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World (G. Clark)

The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order (P. Khanna)

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

The Unfinished Twentieth Century: The Crisis of Weapons of Mass Destruction

The Ends of the Earth: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a
Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy (R.D. Kaplan)

The Return of History and the End of Dreams (R. Kagan)

Freedom and Neurobiology: Reflections on Free Will, Language, and Political
Power (J. Searle)

Rationality in Action (J. Searle)

The Construction of Social Reality (J. Searle)

The Social Construction of Reality (P. Berger & T. Luckmann)

Writings on an Ethical Life (P. Singer)

The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force (J. Schwartz)

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief

Letters from the Earth (M. Twain)

What is Man? and Other Essays (M. Twain)

Creation: A Novel (G. Vidal)

Alexander (T. Dodge)

Civil War (J. Caesar)

The Israel Lobby (Mearsheimer)

Kingdom Coming: the Rise of Christian Nationalism

Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right

Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock

The Sinner’s Guide to the Evangelical Right

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century

Conservatives Without Conscience

Piety & Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom

A Christian America: Protestant Hopes and Historical Realities (R. Handy)

Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Hitchens, C.)

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (D. Hofstadter)

Eschatology: The Doctrine of the Future Life in Israel, Judaism, and Christianity (Charles, R.H.)

The Fundamentalist Phenomenon: The Resurgence of Conservative Christianity (Falwell, J.)

Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (Lincoln, B.)

Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence

When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Boyer, P.)

The Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in America (Blaker, K.)

The Empty Church: The Suicide of Liberal Christianity (Reeves, T.C.)

The Divine Supermarket: Travels in Search of the Soul of America (Ruthven, M.)

The Republican War on Science (Mooney, C.)

The Making of a Moonie: Brainwashing or Choice? (Barker, E.)

The God Delusion (Dawkins, R.)

The Secular Bible: Why Nonbelievers Must Take Religion Seriously (Berlinerblau, J.)

Challenges to the Enlightenment: In Defense of Reason and Science (Kurtz, P., & Madigan, T.J.)

The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy, and the New Fundamentalism (Taverne, R.)

The Closing of the Western Mind (Freeman, C.)

What is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live (Grayling, A.C.)

Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich

Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)

Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (M. Pigliucci)

Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals’ Abuse of Science (A. Sokal)

The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy

Infidel (A.H. Ali)

The Caged Virgin: An Emancipation Proclamation for Women and Islam (A.H. Ali)

Outcasts and Heretics : Profiles in Independent Thought and Courage

What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary (I. Warraq)

The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims

Who Speaks for Islam? (J. Esposito, D. Mogahed)

The Portable Atheist : Essential Readings for the Non-believer

Murder in Amsterdam : The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance

Embracing the Infidel : Stories of Muslim Migrants on the Journey West

The Great Infidel : A Life of David Hume

The Secret History of the American Empire : Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption

A Game as Old as Empire : The Secret World of Economic Hit Men and the Web of Global Corruption

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor (D. Landes)

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire

The Twilight of American Culture

The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (C. Johnson)

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire (C. Johnson)

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (C. Johnson)

American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America’s Future

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

The Myth of the Rational Voter

Myths of the Free Market (K.S. Friedman)

This Book Is Not Required: An Emotional Survival Manual for Students, Third Edition

The Un-TV and the 10 Mph Car: Experiments in Personal Freedom and Everyday Life

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape

The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community

Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists (R. Jungk)

Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought (G. Lakoff)

Metaphors We Live By (G. Lakoff)

The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain (G. Lakoff)

Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision (G. Lakoff)

One Market Under God (T. Frank)

The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism (T. Frank)

What’s the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (T. Frank)

The Disuniting of America (A. Schlesinger)

The Making of Middlebrow Culture (J. Rubin)

The Pursuit of Loneliness

The Memory Wars (F. Crews)

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age (M. Jackson)

Conversation: A History of a Declining Art (S. Miller)

The Revolt of the Elites: And the Betrayal of Democracy

Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in It

The New Media Monopoly (B. Bagdikian)

End Times: The End of the Fourth Estate (A. Cockburn & J. St. Clair)

The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives (N. Turse)

This Book is Not Required: An Emotional Survival Manual for Students (I. Bell)

Childhood’s End (A. Clarke)

Brainwashed for War – Programed to Kill (M. Chang)

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America (T. Friedman)

Culture Jam: How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge–And Why We Must (K. Lasn)

Amusing Ourselves to Death (N. Postman)

The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism

The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations

Moral Politics : What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don’t

The Libertarian Illusion: Ideology, Public Policy and the Assault on the Common Good

What Orwell Didn’t Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics (A. Szanto)

The Conscience of a Liberal (P. Krugman)

Redesigning Humans: Choosing Our Genes, Changing Our Future (G. Stock)

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (R. Kurzweil)

On Intelligence (J. Hawkins)

Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies, and What it Means to Be Human (J. Garreau)

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever (R. Kurzweil)

Are We Spiritual Machines?: Ray Kurzweil vs. the Critics of Strong A.I. (G. GIlder & R. Kurzweil)

More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement (R. Naam)

The Scientific Conquest of Death (Immortality Institute)

Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future (J. Hughes)

Designer Evolution: A Transhumanist Manifesto (S. Young)

Liberation Biology: The Scientific and Moral Case for the Biotech Revolution (R. Bailey)

The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology (D. Buss)

Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World (Evolution and Cognition Series) (G. Gigerenzer)

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (N. Doidge)

Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-Cognition (P. Carruthers)

The Evolution of Intelligence: Are Humans the Only Animals with Minds? (J. Fetzer)

Human: The Science of What Makes Us Unique (M.S. Gazzaniga)

Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth (A. Newberg and M. Waldman)

Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind (G. Marcus)

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (R. Thaler)

On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You’re Not (R. Burton)

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior (O. Brafman)

Challenging Your Preconceptions (R.A. Smith)

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (N. Shubin)

Why God Won’t Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief (A. Newberg)

The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas (M.S. Gazzaniga)

Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion (A. Pratkanis)

The Persuaders: Propaganda in War and Peace (D. Thum)

Guides to Straight Thinking (S. Chase)

Language and Public Policy (Rank, H.)

Propaganda: The Formation of Man’s Attitudes (J. Ellul, K. Kellen, and J. Lerner)

The Fine Art of Propaganda (Institute for Propaganda Analysis)

Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free (Pierce, C.)

Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future (Mooney, C.)

Alger Hiss and the Battle For History (Jacoby, S.)