Skeptic: Promoting Science and Critical Thinking

Inevitable Illusions: How Mistakes of Reason Rule Our Minds

We are all aware of “optical illusions.” This book explains “mental illusions”—the circumstances that cause our intuition to fail and our normal problem solving methods to break down.

Piattelli-Palmarini combines recent research with colorful and entertaining examples explain these factors and how to be aware of them when making important decisions.

“…opens the doors onto the newly charted realm of the cognitive unconscious to reveal the full range of illusions, showing how they inhibit our ability to reason—no matter what our educational background or I.Q. Inevitable Illusions is stimulating, eye opening food for thought.”

“Fascinating and insightful…I cannot recall a book that has made me think more about the nature of thinking.”

—Richard C. Lewontin, Harvard University

Dr. Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini is a Principal Research Associate of the center for Cognitive Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Director of the Department of cognitive Science at the Institute of San Raffaele in Milan, Italy. His books The Will To Study and the Italian edition of Inevitable Illusions were international best sellers.