Background
John Horgan was born on June 23, 1953, in New York City, New York, United States. He is the son of John, Jr. Horgan, a businessman, and Joan (Timmerman) Horgan.
Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
(In The End of Science, John Horgan makes the case that th...)
In The End of Science, John Horgan makes the case that the era of truly profound scientific revelations about the universe and our place in it is over. Interviewing scientific luminaries such as Stephen Hawking, Francis Crick, and Richard Dawkins, he demonstrates that all the big questions that can be answered have been answered, as science bumps up against fundamental limits. The world cannot give us a theory of everything,” and modern endeavors such as string theory are ironic” and theological” in nature, not scientific, because they are impossible to confirm. Horgan's argument was controversial in 1996, and it remains so today, still firing up debates in labs and on the internet, not least becauseas Horgan details in a lengthy new introductionironic science is more prevalent than ever. Still, while Horgan offers his critique, grounded in the thinking of the world's leading researchers, he offers homage, too. If science is ending, he maintains, it is only because it has done its work so well. In The End of Science, John Horgan makes the case that the era of truly profound scientific revelations about the universe and our place in it is over. Interviewing scientific luminaries such as Stephen Hawking, Francis Crick, and Richard Dawkins, he demonstrates that all the big questions that can be answered have been answered, as science bumps up against fundamental limits. The world cannot give us a theory of everything,” and modern endeavors such as string theory are ironic” and theological” in nature, not scientific, because they are impossible to confirm. Horgan's argument was controversial in 1996, and it remains so today, still firing up debates in labs and on the internet, not least becauseas Horgan details in a lengthy new introductionironic science is more prevalent than ever. Still, while Horgan offers his critique, grounded in the thinking of the world's leading researchers, he offers homage, too. If science is ending, he maintains, it is only because it has done its work so well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TT1VLKO/?tag=2022091-20
1996
(In his acclaimed book The End of Science, John Horgan ign...)
In his acclaimed book The End of Science, John Horgan ignited a firestorm of controversy about the limits of knowledge in a wide range of sciences. Now in The Undiscovered Mind he focuses on the single most important scientific enterprise of all -- the effort to understand the human mind -- and exposes a world of minor and doubtful achievement. The science of the mind has irresistible allure because it is about us, not atoms or electricity or planets. For this reason Horgan foresees that, unlike physics or cosmology or biology, it is the one science that will forever demand our attention, that ultimately can have no end. Only recently has the mind become science's busiest line of inquiry. As the Decade of the Brain proclaimed by President Bush draws to a close, a huge research industry has built up around attempts to medicate, replicate, and finally explain the human brain. Scientists hope to solve the riddle of consciousness, to vanquish mental illness, and even to reinvent human nature. Horgan scrutinizes this trend as he takes us inside laboratories, hospitals, and universities to meet neuroscientists, Freudian analysts, electroshock therapists, behavioral geneticists, evolutionary psychologists, artificial intelligence engineers, and philosophers of consciousness. He looks into the persistent explanatory gap between mind and body that Socrates pondered and shows that it has not been bridged. He investigates what he calls the Humpty Dumpty dilemma, the fact that neuroscientists can break the brain and mind into pieces but cannot put the pieces back together again. He presents evidence that the placebo effect is the primary ingredient of psychotherapy, Prozac, and other treatments for mental disorders. We visit with the robot Cog at MIT, whose most human achievement is that he unnervingly watches his visitors move around the room -- Star Trek's Commander Data would find him very dull company. As Horgan shows, the mystery of human consciousness, of why and how we think, remains so impregnable that to expect the attempts of scientific method and technology to penetrate it anytime soon is absurd. Full of fascinating interviews and research, The Undiscovered Mind is a blistering critical tour of every facet of "mind-science." Horgan concludes by destroying the myth of the "scientific savior" and by laying bare the dangers posed by our desire for a final theory of the mind. Nevertheless, he still has the curiosity to try on a Visual/Auditory Relaxation and Sedation contraption with goggles and headphones when offered the opportunity of an "altered state" at a consciousness conference in Tucson. The final "search for an epiphany" is vintage Horgan, both delightfully witty and arrestingly profound. Horgan is one of the most influential journalists in the United States today. His vision of mind-science will continue to infuriate many inside and outside the scientific establishment. It will raise sometimes difficult and even painful questions for those who have benefited from mind science's products -- whether Prozac, or psychoanalysis, or simply more challenging chess-playing software. But these questions are at the heart of the most popular science being done now. This is a shrewd, entertaining, aud necessary book about the universe's ultimate enigma: the undiscovered mind.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684850753/?tag=2022091-20
1999
(A Scientist Asks a Ground Zero Pastor: "Where Was God on ...)
A Scientist Asks a Ground Zero Pastor: "Where Was God on September 11?" is the transcript of an actual conversation between a passionate rationalist and a clergyman engaged in the work of comforting those whose lives were shattered by the attacks of September 11, 2001. One of the world's most celebrated science writers, John Horgan, puts the big moral questions to a pastor who has been daily ministering to the survivors, the Ground Zero rescue workers, and the families and friends of the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center: How can a God of goodness condone such an evil inflicted on so many innocents? Is the God in whose name mass murder is committed the same as the God in whose love the bereaved seek comfort? Can we hope to find answers to such questions, or does the solution to the problem of evil transcend all efforts at human understanding? Can each of the world's major religions continue to claim unique access to universal truth without fomenting deadly fanaticism? Horgan also asks Reverend Geer practical questions about grieving, solace, healing, and persistent distress: How can people help othersand themselves start healing after an event like September 11? Do post-9/11 symptoms such as sleeplessness, inability to concentrate, or vague dread fall within the normal range, or are they flags for clinical attention? Drawing on a lifetime of pastoral duty and priestly meditation, Reverend Geer answers with courage and loving-kindness Horgan's battery of tough questions in Where Was God on September 11? All royalties from this book go to charities selected by the authors.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0763156922/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(The author of The End of Science chronicles the most adva...)
The author of The End of Science chronicles the most advanced research into such experiences as prayer, fasting, and trances in this “great read” (The Washington Post). How do trances, visions, prayer, satori, and other mystical experiences “work”? What induces and defines them? Is there a scientific explanation for religious mysteries and transcendent meditation? John Horgan investigates a wide range of fields—chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, theology, and more—to narrow the gap between reason and mystical phenomena. As both a seeker and an award-winning journalist, Horgan consulted a wide range of experts, including theologian Huston Smith, spiritual heir to Joseph Campbell; Andrew Newberg, the scientist whose quest for the “God module” was the focus of a Newsweek cover story; Ken Wilber, prominent transpersonal psychologist; Alexander Shulgin, legendary psychedelic drug chemist; and Susan Blackmore, Oxford-educated psychologist, parapsychology debunker, and Zen practitioner. Horgan explores the striking similarities between “mystical technologies” like sensory deprivation, prayer, fasting, trance, dancing, meditation, and drug trips. He participates in experiments that seek the neurological underpinnings of mystical experiences. And, finally, he recounts his own search for enlightenment—adventurous, poignant, and sometimes surprisingly comic. Horgan’s conclusions resonate with the controversial climax of The End of Science, because, as he argues, the most enlightened mystics and the most enlightened scientists end up in the same place—confronting the imponderable depth of the universe. The author of The End of Science chronicles the most advanced research into such experiences as prayer, fasting, and trances in this “great read” (The Washington Post). How do trances, visions, prayer, satori, and other mystical experiences “work”? What induces and defines them? Is there a scientific explanation for religious mysteries and transcendent meditation? John Horgan investigates a wide range of fields—chemistry, neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, theology, and more—to narrow the gap between reason and mystical phenomena. As both a seeker and an award-winning journalist, Horgan consulted a wide range of experts, including theologian Huston Smith, spiritual heir to Joseph Campbell; Andrew Newberg, the scientist whose quest for the “God module” was the focus of a Newsweek cover story; Ken Wilber, prominent transpersonal psychologist; Alexander Shulgin, legendary psychedelic drug chemist; and Susan Blackmore, Oxford-educated psychologist, parapsychology debunker, and Zen practitioner. Horgan explores the striking similarities between “mystical technologies” like sensory deprivation, prayer, fasting, trance, dancing, meditation, and drug trips. He participates in experiments that seek the neurological underpinnings of mystical experiences. And, finally, he recounts his own search for enlightenment—adventurous, poignant, and sometimes surprisingly comic. Horgan’s conclusions resonate with the controversial climax of The End of Science, because, as he argues, the most enlightened mystics and the most enlightened scientists end up in the same place—confronting the imponderable depth of the universe.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003WJQ6ZE/?tag=2022091-20
2003
(War is a fact of human nature. As long as we exist, it ex...)
War is a fact of human nature. As long as we exist, it exists. That's how the argument goes. But longtime Scientific American writer John Horgan disagrees. Applying the scientific method to war leads Horgan to a radical conclusion: biologically speaking, we are just as likely to be peaceful as violent. War is not preordained, and furthermore, it should be thought of as a solvable, scientific problemlike curing cancer. But war and cancer differ in at least one crucial way: whereas cancer is a stubborn aspect of nature, war is our creation. It’s our choice whether to unmake it or not. In this compact, methodical treatise, Horgan examines dozens of examples and counterexamplesdiscussing chimpanzees and bonobos, warring and peaceful indigenous people, the World War I and Vietnam, Margaret Mead and General Shermanas he finds his way to war’s complicated origins. Horgan argues for a far-reaching paradigm shift with profound implications for policy students, ethicists, military men and women, teachers, philosophers, or really, any engaged citizen. War is a fact of human nature. As long as we exist, it exists. That's how the argument goes. But longtime Scientific American writer John Horgan disagrees. Applying the scientific method to war leads Horgan to a radical conclusion: biologically speaking, we are just as likely to be peaceful as violent. War is not preordained, and furthermore, it should be thought of as a solvable, scientific problemlike curing cancer. But war and cancer differ in at least one crucial way: whereas cancer is a stubborn aspect of nature, war is our creation. It’s our choice whether to unmake it or not. In this compact, methodical treatise, Horgan examines dozens of examples and counterexamplesdiscussing chimpanzees and bonobos, warring and peaceful indigenous people, the World War I and Vietnam, Margaret Mead and General Shermanas he finds his way to war’s complicated origins. Horgan argues for a far-reaching paradigm shift with profound implications for policy students, ethicists, military men and women, teachers, philosophers, or really, any engaged citizen.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007NLCM2I/?tag=2022091-20
2012
John Horgan was born on June 23, 1953, in New York City, New York, United States. He is the son of John, Jr. Horgan, a businessman, and Joan (Timmerman) Horgan.
Horgan received bachelor's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1982, as well as master's degree a year later.
Horgan was appointed to the magazine IEEE Spectrum in 1983 to the position of an associate editor. In 1986 he moved to the magazine Scientific American and stayed there till 1997. Horgan published his popular book The End of Science in 1996. He began to work as a freelance writer in 1997. Two years later Horgan published his second book The End of Science with The Undiscovered Mind: How the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication and Explanation. Among his another witings there can be named Where Was God on September 11? (2002), Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality (2003), and The End of War (2012).
In 2005, Horgan became the Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology. There he works as a teacher of science journalism, history of science and other courses. Now he is a frequent host of "Science Faction".
(A Scientist Asks a Ground Zero Pastor: "Where Was God on ...)
2002(The author of The End of Science chronicles the most adva...)
2003(In The End of Science, John Horgan makes the case that th...)
1996(In his acclaimed book The End of Science, John Horgan ign...)
1999(War is a fact of human nature. As long as we exist, it ex...)
2012Horgan married Suzie Gilbert, they have 2 children - Macneil and Skye.