Virtual Event: Stephen M. Fleming

Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome STEPHEN M. FLEMING—a Sir Henry Dale Wellcome Trust/Royal Society fellow at the department of experimental psychology at University College London—for a discussion of his book Know Thyself: The Science of Self-Awareness. He will be joined in conversation by ELIZABETH PHELPS, the Pershing Square Professor of Human Neuroscience at Harvard University.

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About Know Thyself

“Are you sure?”

Whether in a court room, a doctor’s office, a gameshow’s hot seat, or a student’s desk, we are always trying to answer that question. Should we accept eyewitness testimony or a physician’s diagnosis? Do we really want to risk it all on a final question? And what should we be studying in order to do as well as possible on a test? In short, how do we know what we and others know—or as importantly, don’t know?

As cognitive neuroscientist Stephen Fleming shows in Know Thyself, we do this with metacognition. Metacognition, or thinking about thinking, is the most important tool we have for understanding our own mind. Metacognition is an awesome power: It is what enables self-awareness as well as what lets us think about the minds of others. It is the ultimate human trait, and in its most rarefied forms is a power that neither other animals, nor our current artificial intelligences, have. Metacognition teaches us the limits of our own knowledge. Once we understand what it is and how it works, we can improve our performance and make better decisions. For example, on the SAT, it helps us gauge when we should skip a question rather than lose points getting an answer wrong.

Know Thyself, like the metacognition itself, is equal parts scientific, philosophical, and practical. And that means, like Thinking, Fast and Slow and Predictably Irrational, it’s that rarest of books: one that can both expand our minds and change our lives.

Praise for Know Thyself

"A very interesting book on perhaps the most interesting topic." —Sam Harris, Making Sense Podcast

"What a wonderful book. From self-doubt to self-awareness, and everything in between. Steve Fleming, who has made his career study thoughts about thoughts, or metacognition, takes the reader on a journey into what it means to be a being that knows its self, and, as a consequence, can contemplate the self inside others." —Joseph LeDoux, author of The Deep History of Ourselves

"Know Thyself is an extraordinary book. Written by a leader in the science of self-awareness, it is both accessible and erudite, a self-help manual and a work of scholarship. It will be a rewarding read for anyone who wants to understand how metacognition (and its failures) affect us in personal and public life—in education, sports, law, politics, and in our ever-deepening engagements with AI." —Cecilia Heyes, Professor of Psychology at University of Oxford and author of Cognitive Gadgets