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Loading... The Man Who Tasted Shapes (original 1993; edition 1993)by M.D. Richard E. Cytowic (Author)
Work detailsThe Man Who Tasted Shapes by Richard E. Cytowic (1993)
   None. No current Talk conversations about this book.  NLytle | May 18, 2015 |  It was very interesting and the main narrative was engaging. Towards the end though he goes off on this tangent about 'the primacy of emotion over reason' that heads straight into New Age territory. Worse the whole arguments are directed various 'straw man'. If you just want to get an inside view on Synesthesia this is a good book for you. If your looking for trustworthy science then not so much. (  ) Sosiles | Apr 26, 2008 | An interesting book for synaesthetes. As the foreword suggests, it makes some provocative assertions (siting synaesthesia in the limbic system, and saying that, for humans, emotion, connected with that system, is biologically prior to ratiocination, with the cortex), based on the author's own researches up to 1993. The revised edition chooses not to amend the text in the light of more recent research (because, explicitly, that would spoil the 'story' of the reseach - emotion, here, before thought?), but places them in an afterword. Since this new research (to 2003) does alter the picture quite markedly, that is probably a wrong decision. An interesting account of one piece of fascinating scientific research, though, and Cytowic does allow himself to explore the scientific process more broadly that his precise subject might necessarily call for. Ironically, his 1993 conclusions are probably falsified to a degree by the very technological advances that he decries in the main text of the book. (  ) Bibliophial | Jan 2, 2007 | no reviews | add a review
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Wikipedia in English (8)
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I've always been curious about how people with "blended senses" perceive things. The book describes one person who perceives shapes when tasting food, and another case where the person perceives colors when hearing sound. The book also contains an interesting chart showing how senses can be blended together (the technical term is "synesthesia") and its frequency. All the possibilities are quite rare.
The book has three themes: synesthesia, the biology of the brain and of perceptions, and the philosophy of perception and consciousness. Most of it is presented in the context of a detective story as the author encounters the people with synesthesia, attempts to scientifically validate their perceptions, and presents the findings to a skeptical scientific community.
An interesting read. (