Rating: 
Summary: A book that makes you think about thinking and read more.
Review: At last, a new, non-technical work that examines the role of rationality (vs. emotionality) in determining human behavior. Donald Calne has written a readable and thorough study of the role of reason in religion, commerce, government, the arts, science, and behavior. He ponders the nature of the human mind and where it dwells. This is a fascinating work, lucidly written so that it is easily accessible to the lay reader, in which the author provides an elaborate reference work to the writings of many great philosophers on these subjects. Highly recommended to all those interested in the nature of human consiousness, and the extent to which rational thought rules our actions.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing and Unoriginal
Review: Calne's work is hardly deserving of the description "scholarly." Nearly all of his material is found in other introductory works on the subject and receives more detailed treatment elsewhere as well. Perhaps Calne can be forgiven for not familiarizing himself with the current literature and writing a superfluous book - after all, he is just an M.D., not a psychologist or philosopher. This book is not worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing and Unoriginal
Review: Calne's work is hardly deserving of the description "scholarly." Nearly all of his material is found in other introductory works on the subject and receives more detailed treatment elsewhere as well. Perhaps Calne can be forgiven for not familiarizing himself with the current literature and writing a superfluous book - after all, he is just an M.D., not a psychologist or philosopher. This book is not worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: A Major intellectual Achievement
Review: Following the inextriciable link of brain and mind, Calne has pursued the application of reason to language, social and individual behavior, ethics commerce, religion, art and science. This broad canvas provides the background for his erudition and for his uncanny ability to make complicated sibkects absolutely clear. Lewis P Rowland M.D.
Rating: 
Summary: not what I expected
Review: I expected the author to discuss the relation between reason and goodness, especially since he raises the provocative paradox early in the book about how very intelligent and reasonable people can do bad and evil things. His thesis is that reason/intelligence/science is morally neutral, and that our behavior is motivated by instinct, independent of our intellects. So he ends up explaining all the puzzling aspects of human behavior as instinctive: psychopaths lack brain module X, religious people have overactive brain module Y., etc. The result is intellectually unsatisfying. The author leaves us with no rationaL criteria to classify actions as right or wrong, good or bad. I far prefer Brand Blanshard's Reason and Goodness (1966) on this topic.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, even with its flaws
Review: Look, this is not the most well-written book (Calne is a scientist after all, not a writer). It's not the best page-turner either. But the reason this is a good book is because of its thesis and subsequent discussion of rationality and its psychological correlates. There aren't enough books out there that deal with this, so it's a swig of cold water to read this one. Of course, David Hume came to these same conclusions almost 4 centuries ago. The insight is not what's original, but the attempt to anchor it within the scientific (rather than philosophic) framework is. The implications of the idea that Reason is just a tool for getting what we want are significant for philosophy (especially ethics and political philosophy). Read the book; skim it if necessary, but it is worth your money.
Rating:
Summary: Good, even with its flaws
Review: Look, this is not the most well-written book (Calne is a scientist after all, not a writer). It's not the best page-turner either. But the reason this is a good book is because of its thesis and subsequent discussion of rationality and its psychological correlates. There aren't enough books out there that deal with this, so it's a swig of cold water to read this one. Of course, David Hume came to these same conclusions almost 4 centuries ago. The insight is not what's original, but the attempt to anchor it within the scientific (rather than philosophic) framework is. The implications of the idea that Reason is just a tool for getting what we want are significant for philosophy (especially ethics and political philosophy). Read the book; skim it if necessary, but it is worth your money.
Rating:
Summary: Could have used a reasonable editor
Review: The core argument of this book, that reason or rational thinking is a value-free activity, which we can put to whatever use we please, is indisputable. At the same time, I think there is great value in stating the argument as directly as this book does. However, the discussion in the book is often reductive, digressive at best, scattered at worst. In addition, the author's own phobias and neuroses are frequently on display (a rather morbid view of sex is an example). A good editor probably could have done wonders to focus the author's work and eliminate some of the overt weirdness. The subject deserves a more nuanced and better edited discussion.
Rating: 
Summary: Promises more than can deliver
Review: The introduction was intriguing, with its references to the paradoxical barbarity that had manifested itself in a highly educated society like Nazi Germany, but I had the impression that Calne tried to be too far reaching in his attempts to fit rationality in its proper place within human behavior. One of his basic premises is that rationality is not an end in itself, but rather a tool employed on the behalf of human instincts. While this certainly has a ring of truth to it, the thesis is by no means radical, which is why I wonder if abler attempts have been made to dissect the role of reason within human behavior. I would recommend skimming Calne's book if one had the opportunity to examine his major premises, but otherwise I was left dissatisfied by my sense that the topic he was trying to tackle was a much bigger fish than his line could handle.
Rating:
Summary: Strangely free of useful content
Review: This book is more of a manifesto than an education. Calne sets forth statements with which I largely agree, while giving short shrift to the basis for those statements and even less attention to the consequences of the truth of those statements. This is not a book about why we should agree with Calne, and it is not a book about what people who agree with Calne should do -- it is merely a book explaining what Calne believes. I was in the market for a book that gives his fellow-travellers, like me, some ammunition for argument and discussion, and even some things to think about. But this is not that book. At best, it's preaching to the choir.
| 
