Book Review: Accounting for Cognitive Costs: Can Scientists be Creative? Dr. Holyoak's Spider's Thread (forthcoming - Philosophical Psychology)

Long have scientists – renowned, trained experts – effectively answered questions within their niche. The mastery scientists offer within their area of expertise is not only indispensable, but advantageous if such knowledge itself is to remain indispensable and applicable to other domains. Why then do so many experts stay confined to applying their knowledge within their routine realm? Can scientists apply and contribute their expertise into the arts, and vice versa? The Spider’s Thread: Metaphor in Mind, Brain, and Poetry by Dr. Keith Holyoak addresses this disconnect between science and art beginning with discussions of neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics, to creative writing in poetry, and identifies and proposes potential methods of interconnection and cross-disciplinary proficiency for psychologists, scientists, and artists alike. This work builds on previous research demonstrating metaphor, a type of analogical reasoning, as a mechanism for learning, and helps the reader comprehend ways in which understanding a relation in one domain can extend to understanding a relation across another domain, so that we can move beyond understanding what we already know, to actually applying analogies in novel contexts for broader, cross-disciplinary, proficiency. This book broadly refers to all major sectors ranging from linguistics, to neuroscience, poetry, and finally to education. It is a wonderful resource for academics, students, artists and scientists alike who are interested in broadening their own comprehension, and expertise, across discipline, as well as creating connections between otherwise disconnected domains.