Lehrer steps out boldly and perhaps brashly as he weaves together tales of revolutionary artists and their (so-called) prescient views of the human mind. Though sometimes a bit arbitrary and melodramatic, each chapter contains thoughtful insights into the dynamic interplay between a particular artist and the science of the artist's time and/or of modern times. Artist readers will glean fascinating insights into current neuroscience, and scientists will begin to fill in the gaps of artists who may only be only familiar by name.
Lehrer's goal is to provide more than vignettes of artists interested in the workings of the mind. While not saying anything profoundly new, Lehrer reminds us of the importance of appreciating truth from a range of disciplines. He seeks to free the reader to appreciate the "other" sources as valid, and it is clear that he especially has the scientist in mind when he stretches to show that the artists were "discovering" truths about the mind long ago. Whether Lehrer's particular characters work for the story he seeks to sell is up to the individual reader, but his point is made irregardless.
Overall, a pleasant and informative recasting. ..With a line that should be repeated often: "The one reality science cannot reduce is the only reality we will ever know. This is why we need art." ( )

Really fascinating book, I think I'll have to go back and listen to the whole thing again. Lehrer brings together so many disparate fields and explains them so clearly. I just loved every chapter but especially those on music and art. He explains why we hate the avante guarde and then learn to love it, why music touches us and so many other things. ( )

{This review is being written several months after finishing the book.} The author's main thesis is that many people in the arts "knew" aspects of human nature that are only recently being scientifically proved by neuroscientists. I believe the author makes a very good case and provides many interesting facts and summaries of recent results in neuroscience and also the artists (Whitman, Eliot, Escoffier, Proust, Cezanne Stravinsky, Stein, and Woolf). ( )

Thesis is silly. But it's an okay collection of ruminations on science and culture. I think the writer and the readers would be better off if Lehrer hadn't pretended he was making an extended argument about art anticipating science, or whatever.

Pros: a very good angle; interesting writing; a broad range of knowledge
Cons: it fades off from the middle of each chapter; not much original materials and insights compared to what the author has set off for from the beginning; becoming another history book of the both worlds (art/science) rather than real synergy insights; the attack on pinker and etc. in the last chapter is not convincing at all (the biggest let down of the book). ( )