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Product Details
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Lyons Press; First edition (October 21, 2014)
Leonard Shlain turns his attention to the subject of Leonardo da Vinci, and seeks to explain his singularity as a universal genius by employing contemporary state of the art left-right brain scientific research. As in his previous best seller, Art and Physics, this book showcases Shlain’s lucid style, his passionate commitment to ideas, his intellectual courage to make bold but informed speculations on large subjects, and his ability to discern connections in a wide range of fields.
This is a book that integrates art criticism, science, medicine, neuroscience, human psychology, philosophy, and evolution.
It’s bold and brilliant.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Leonard Shlain's book about Leonardo da Vinci is an unabashed celebration of a Renaissance genius whose staggering range of achievements spanned art, science and invention. Despite the five centuries that have passed since da Vinci lived, Shlain marshals evidence to show the scope of his genius resulted from the unique physiology of his brain that allowed him to achieve all he did in both art and science.
Shlain's book on da Vinci follows from the spirit of the author's previous books, most notably The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image and Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light. Taken together, the three books examine the way alphabetic literacy reconfigured the human brain and brought about profound changes in history, religion, and gender relations; review the ways art interprets the visible world while science charts its unseen workings; and describe the manner in which a unique individual transcended the divisions between left and right-brained approaches to the world to achieve exceptional genius.
Much of the evidence Shlain presents is based on the neuroscience with which the author, a practicing laparoscopic surgeon, extrapolates from the fact that da Vinci was a gay left-handed (but ambidextrous) man and a vegetarian pacifist. From both his paintings and his scientific journals, Shlain infers that da Vinci was able to transcend the division between the left and right hemispheres of his brain and achieve a synthesis that was the engine of his genius:
"For creativity to manifest itself, the right brain must free itself from the deadening hand of the inhibitory left brain and do its work, unimpeded..." (p.Read more ›
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
I just finished my first reading of Leonardo's Brain. I loved it. It is a brilliant and important work. I will read it again very carefully. My wife and I have read all of Leonard Shlain's books, and found them each to be important guides for our human future.
Leonardo's Brain is a fitting addition and final chapter to Shlain's legacy.
Leonard Shlain was a polymath in his own right. This book is in part personal biography, art history, science history, neuroscience, and scientific hypothesis.
You will be informed, educated, provoked, challenged and awed. You will never think of Leonardo da Vinci or yourself in quite the same way.
Thank you Leonard.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Easy to read, delightfully clear and brilliantly illuminating. Leonardo (Da Vinci and Shlain) are unique humans. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in expanding their cognitive aesthetic.
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It is an easy to read, carefully crafted book that I enjoyed reading. I am sure I will come back to it again. The parts in which Shain makes explicit references to Leonardo da Vinci's writings/drawings/pictures to provide some form of evidence/support for his (Shain's) arguments/observations are more credible and thought provoking than some other parts of the book where such references are missing. But then again perhaps it is somewhat intentional on the part of the author that some parts do satiate the left brain of the reader, whereas some other parts invite the reader to take a leap of faith with the right brain...
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I am now listening to this book for the sixth time! Absolutely the best book; especially if your interested in Brain Neurology involving Creativity. This book truly has it all... Fascinating art history for that period and beyond and the amazing thing about how far ahead Leonardo was in his thinking and inventions; this Periods general political atmosphere gives you a clue of the struggles Leonardo and others had to go through especially fleeing from the times of war between various factions. Also it seems like it's more common than not that great thinkers and creative person's have a tendency to not finish a lot of their work and that got me thinking. There are a lot of great quotes and interesting historical facts and maybe even some. Hypotheses that makes this book so worthy of many, many reads!
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Fascinating explanation of the creative process and the underlying proposed structure of Leonardo's brain. Explores his groundbreaking work and how it relates to our current understanding of consciousness, creativity and connections. One of the many excellent sections explains right brain and left brain attributes.
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I knew Dr. Shlain, read his other books & I had heard him lecture about this subject. His enthusiasm, breadth of knowledge, & humor were invigorating & I got to re experience those memories as I read this book. I so appreciate his daughter completing his book. He would be so proud of her. Thank you. Dr. Grace Lusk
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This item: Leonardo's Brain: Understanding Da Vinci's Creative Genius
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