Robert A. Burton

This one wasn't worth my time. Here is a sample: an illustrative example posed on page 48 in the chapter entitled "Causation":

To flesh out the complex and overlapping relationships between agency, intention, and causation, consider how, as little kids, we learned to establish causation by witnessing the consequences of our own actions. Suppose that I am tempted to flip the shiny On-Off switch on Dad's stereo. I want to know what will happen. When I do, the music comes on far louder than I show more expected. Mom sticks her fingers in her ears and screams, "No dessert for you." In my room I review the unfortunate series of events. I flipped the switch (agency) with my hand (ownership of body part) because I was curious and wanted to see what would happen (intention). My intention caused Mom to cancel dessert. The general principle: The closer the fit between intention and outcome, the more likely we are to conclude that the outcome was caused by our intention.

This is a family of idiots. That's my inescapable conclusion. (And the inclusion of the word "shiny" tells us that Burton knows that.) I want nothing to do with any of them.

I wish I could tell you that that was the page on which I abandoned this inflated, pretentious conglomeration of old news and lame examples, but in truth I persevered for another 18 grueling pages before throwing in the towel. At that point I couldn't stand to read any more of his chronically stupid illustrations or see him thrash the same old arguments in language high in verbosity and low in insight and revelation.

I really liked the author's earlier work, On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not. It altered my thinking in a number of respects and gave me a way of talking about the difference between feeling sure about something and knowing it for a fact. Because of that, I wanted to like this book and gave it a generous opportunity to win me over. Instead, this one feels like an attempt to rehash the same material and sell it again--something any number of popular nonfiction authors manage shamelessly and others just shouldn't try.

(Abandoned on page 66; not rated.) show less

Fascinating subject matter, well presented. After reading this, you're likely to start to catch yourself being more certain about some things than you have any business being. I wish everyone would read this book.
I agree with the previous reviewer about Burton's critique of popular authors, especially Gladwell and Andrew Weill. However, I found Burton's criticism of Dawkins was actually based on a misunderstanding of Dawkins. Burton criticized a short excerpt from an interview with Dawkins show more which had been quoted in The Guardian (UK), not any of Dawkins' actual writing. I'm sure Dawkins would have been clearer about what he was saying in a book. I pointed out to Burton another interview with Dawkins on Salon.com, (where Burton writes a column), in the Salon interview Dawkins clarifies his meaning of some of the very words Burton was criticizing.
True to his premise, not hanging on to certainty in the face of evidence, Burton acknowledged that his particular criticism of Dawkins was based on a misunderstanding of what Dawkins meant.
Aside from my minor quibble with him on that, I thought the book was excellent. show less

The main argument is that certainty is a byproduct of our brains (similar to how eyes produce sight) and NOT a direct consequence of rationality or emotions. Burton helps raise a few dilemmas from modern psychology by juxtaposing a few provocative findings against broad western mores, language, law, literature, and religion. For the bravado, I most enjoyed his principled critique of wildly popular authors, such as Gladwell, Dawkins, Gould, and Goldman.

Burton's new book explodes the myth perpetuated by Gladwell and others that our "hunches" reveal deep seated inner wisdom that we can harness and train. His explanation of the way that we make decisions, particularly those based on "certainties," illuminates a process that is far from certain. The first section of the book provides a quick tour of the latest ideas in how our mind works. After giving this background information Burton spends the last third of the book explaining how the show more quirks of this process affects our perceptions of what is certainly true. show less