Who You Are

Michael Spivey's new book offers an engaging, provocative exploration of who you are, which is often quite different from who you may think you are. He demonstrates how our minds, and our sense of who we are as persons, emerge from complex interactions between brains, bodies, and environments. Spivey describes many important scientific discoveries that collectively point to an expanded vision of who we are, full of humility and humanity. Reading this book will stretch your imagination. Who You Are comes across as twenty-first-century cognitive science at its very best.

Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr., author of Embodiment and Cognitive Science

Occasionally a book comes around that achieves something rare: it takes an age-old question like Who Am I? and teaches us something new. Spivey's book does just that—brilliantly, accessibly, originally, and convincingly. It is a modern, scientific view of the self and reading it will transform your sense of the person you think you know so well.

Mahzarin R. Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics, Department of Psychology, Harvard University

Spivey masterfully marshals evidence of an increasingly expanding notion of mind. Are you just the neural tissue in your skull? (Probably not.) In that case surely whoever you are is contained within your body? (Not according to the evidence.) Well, certainly every molecule that has ever existed in the universe can't be part of your mind? (You be the judge.) Who You Are is an invitation down the slippery slope of extended cognition, which in Spivey's able hands, is an exhilarating descent into connectedness.

Benjamin K. Bergen, Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego

Who You Are pulls off a rare trick: it manages to be both profoundly subversive and great fun to read. Spivey will have you laughing out loud while he undermines your most deeply held beliefs about your self.

Anthony Chemero, Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, University of Cincinnati