Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

256 Pages·2013·1.6 MB·English

by  Maria Konnikova

Published in Great Britain in 2013 by Canongate Books Ltd,
14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE
www.canongate.tv
This digital edition first published in 2013 by Canongate Books Copyright © Maria Konnikova, 2013
The moral right of the author has been asserted Portions of this book appeared in a different form on the
website Big Think (www.bigthink.com) and in Scientific American
First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, a member of the Penguin Group (USA)
Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10013, USA Photograph credits:
Page here (bottom left): United States Government
here (bottom right): Wikimichels (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0)
here (bottom left): Biophilia curiosus (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)
here (bottom right): Brandon Motz (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0) British Library Cataloguing-in-
Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library ISBN 978 0 85786 724 7
Export ISBN 978 0 85786 725 4
eISBN 978 0 85786 726 1
Typeset in Minion Pro
Designed by Francesca Belanger
To Geoff
Choice of attention—to pay attention to this and ignore that—is to the inner life
what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases man is responsible for his
choice and must accept the consequences. As Ortega y Gasset said: “Tell me to
what you pay attention, and I will tell you who you are.”
—W. H. AUDEN
CONTENTS
Prelude
PART ONE
UNDERSTANDING (YOURSELF)
CHAPTER ONE
The Scientific Method of the Mind
CHAPTER TWO
The Brain Attic: What Is It and What’s in There?
PART TWO
FROM OBSERVATION TO IMAGINATION