WAKING UP

ÔÇ£A nimble book, amiably and conversationally jumping from point to point. The bookÔÇÖs length is one of its charms: He never belabors any one topic or idea, sticking around exactly as long as he needs to in order to lay out his argument (and tackle the rebuttals that it will inevitably provoke) and not a page longer.ÔÇØ ÔÇöWashington Post
ÔÇ£A brief and forceful broadside at the conundrum that has nagged at every major thinker from Plato to Slavoj Zizek. Self-avowedly secular, [Harris is] addressing the need for individual growth and social betterment, and doing so with compelling argument and style.ÔÇØ ÔÇöLos Angeles TimesÔÇ£Harris skewers the concept of free will ÔÇö that mainstay of law, policy and politics ÔÇö in fewer than 100 pages.ÔÇØ ÔÇöNature

┬á“Brilliant and wittyÔÇöand never less than incisiveÔÇöFree Will shows that Sam Harris can say more in 13,000 words than most people do in 100,000.” ÔÇöOliver Sacks

ÔÇ£The most compelling strand in ÔÇ£The Moral LandscapeÔÇØ is its unspooling diatribe against relativism.ÔÇØ ÔÇöNew York Times

ÔÇ£This is an inspiring book, holding out as it does the possibility of a rational understanding of how to construct the good life with the aid of science, free from the accretions of religious superstition and cultural coercion.ÔÇØ ÔÇöFinancial Times

Harriss is a first-principle argument, backed by copious empirical evidence woven through a tightly reasoned narrative Harriss program of a science-based morality is a courageous one that I wholeheartedly endorse. Scientific American

ÔÇ£Sam Harris breathes intellectual fire into an ancient debate. Reading this thrilling, audacious book, you feel the ground shifting beneath your feet. Reason has never had a more passionate advocate.ÔÇØÔÇöIan McEwan

ÔÇ£I was one of those who had unthinkingly bought into the hectoring myth that science can say nothing about morals. To my surprise,┬áThe Moral Landscape┬áhas changed all that for me. It should change it for philosophers too. Philosophers of mind have already discovered that they can’t duck the study of neuroscience, and the best of them have raised their game as a result. ┬áSam Harris shows that the same should be true of moral philosophers, and it will turn their world exhilaratingly upside down. As for religion, and the preposterous idea that we need God to be good, nobody wields a sharper bayonet than Sam Harris.ÔÇØÔÇöRichard Dawkins

ÔÇ£Reading Sam Harris is like drinking water from a cool stream on a hot day. He has the rare ability to frame arguments that are not only stimulating, they are downright nourishingÔǪ His discussions will provoke secular liberals and religious conservatives alike, who jointly argue from different perspectives that there always will be an unbridgeable chasm between merely knowing what is and discerning what should be. As was the case with HarrisÔÇÖ previous books, readers are bound to come away with previously firm convictions about the world challenged, and a vital new awareness about the nature and value of science and reason in our lives.ÔÇØ ÔÇöLawrence M. Krauss, Foundation Professor and Director of the ASU Origins Project at Arizona State University, author of The Physics of Star Trek, and, Quantum Man: Richard FeynmanÔÇÖs Life in Science┬á

┬áÔÇ£A lively, provocative, and timely new look at one of the deepest problems in the world of ideas. Harris makes a powerful case for a morality that is based on human flourishing and thoroughly enmeshed with science and rationality. It is a tremendously appealing vision, and one that no thinking person can afford to ignore.ÔÇØ ÔÇöSteven Pinker, Harvard College Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate.

Expanding upon concepts posited in the End of Faith and Free Will, neuroscientist Harris draws from personal contemplative practice and a growing body of scientific research to argue that the self, the feeling that there is an I residing in ones head, is both an illusion and the primary cause of human suffering. The great value and novelty of this book is that Harris, in a simple but rigorous style, takes the middle way between pseudoscientific and pseudospiritual assertions, cogently maintaining that while such contemplative insights provide no evidence for metaphysical claims, they are available, and seeing them for ourselves leads to a profoundly more salubrious life. (Publishers Weekly)