Balance: How It Works and What It Means

by Paul Thagard

Living is a balancing act. Ordinary activities like walking, running, or riding a bike require the brain to keep the body in balance. A dancer’s poised elegance and a tightrope walker’s breathtaking performance are feats of balance. Language abounds with expressions and figures of speech that invoke balance. People fret over work-life balance or try to eat a balanced diet. The concept crops up from politics―checks and balances, the balance of power, balanced budgets―to science, in which ideas of equilibrium are crucial. Why is balance so fundamental, and how do physical and metaphorical balance shed light on each other?

Paul Thagard explores the physiological workings and metaphorical resonance of balance in the brain, the body, and society. He describes the neural mechanisms that keep bodies balanced and explains why their failures can result in nausea, falls, or vertigo. Thagard connects bodily balance with leading ideas in neuroscience, including the nature of consciousness. He analyzes balance metaphors across science, medicine, economics, the arts, and philosophy, showing why some aid understanding but others are misleading or harmful. Thagard contends that balance is ultimately a matter of making sense of the world. In both literal and metaphorical senses, balance is what enables people to solve the puzzles of life by turning sensory signals or an incongruous comparison into a coherent whole.

Bridging philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, Balance shows how an unheralded concept’s many meanings illuminate the human condition.

Genres: Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

Published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[batuhan_a_kocak · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might be the most boring nonfic I've ever read. I thought it was going to be a detailed description of the physiological, neurological and cognitive mechanisms of bodily balance. The first two chapters described those very superficially. And then the rest of the book was just a list of balance metaphors from physics, biology, psychology, economy, etc. and a short comment from the author, showing his approval or disapproval.

First, the structure of the book was too repetitive. After the third chapter, it was just the formula (metaphor, explaining the metaphor, spoonfeeding the source of the metaphor [body balance, scale balance, etc], judge the metaphor [strong, weak, bogus, toxic]). At least mix the order up a little bit to gice it some spice. Secondly, who died and left this guy in charge of all of science, art and philosophy? Why is he evaluating metaphors used in all these fields like he's an expert in every single one?

[TheNomad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I... somewhat liked this book then I should've. It talked about the "balance metaphor" in general and I found that completely useful for someone that is inquisitive about how people interpret the world around them and, of course, linguistics is partly responsible for that. It's hard to explain. This was an interesting and easy book to read. And the "easiness" of reading is definitely what propelled me to continue on.

As a Marxist-Leninist, I would recommend it to anyone is interested in philosophy in general, not just MLs. And yet, I do want to say that you shouldn't expect the person who wrote the book to be "radical" because he's not. Still, I found the philosophical inquiries into the "balance metaphor" and which ones actually make sense to be quite useful and thoughtful.

If you're into language, linguistics, metaphysics, and philosophy, definitely give this a read.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balance: How It Works and What It Means, by Paul Thagard, presents balance in all its forms, from literal to metaphorical, and looks at its importance. This book is so much more than just informative, it makes the reader think about metaphors and related tools in a much more practical nature.

I should explain, I don't mean practical in the sense of being a perfect fit. I mean that many of us use metaphors as if they were analogies, which generally have a much closer alignment with what is being referred to. Yet we take a common metaphor and nitpick about the places where it is not applicable. Unfortunately, when one person does that, the tendency is for the next person to then debate those details rather than point out that the metaphor is not meant to have a direct one-to-one alignment, it is used to offer a loose-fitting stand-in that can make discussion better.

Thagard works from the literal, biological/physiological balance as illustrated by the imbalance of vertigo. Then, subject by subject he analyzes various balance metaphors. In doing so he highlights where many serve a very useful purpose while others are actually counterproductive and offer openings for pseudo-debate on the accuracy of the metaphor rather than on the topic at hand. These metaphors allow some to deflect the actual issue at hand by pretending the issue of the metaphor is what matters.

What, in a purely fun way, really makes this book a great read is just how many ways we use the idea of balance/imbalance in talking about almost everything. Even some of the ones I have used frequently have become so cliched that I had stopped thinking about how accurately they fit.

In addition to the body of the text there are plenty of good notes that support his comments. His list of references is extensive, and I plan to go through it more closely and pick out some reading in the areas I find most intriguing.

This is an accessible work, even when he is discussing abstract concepts. He keeps his explanations clear and his examples are usually spot-on. In addition to those with an interest in our use of language in general I would also recommend this to those who enjoy reading in that area where different fields meet and converse.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[R.Z. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author begins his book by discussing the different ways the word "Balance" is used. It's not really relevant to the theme of the book which is the balance issues that your body might have. Nevertheless, when the main theme is begun, the author gives detailed descriptions of the inner ear, the brain, and many other places in the body that affect your balance. This is undoubtedly helpful to audiologists, physicians, and others that work with balance-challenged individuals, but for the lay person (balanced challenged though I may be) it's a bit repetitious in its descriptions and I found myself skimming many details. The charts are simple and helpful, and I did learn some useful things that I will pursue in preventing any falls in the future..

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to the playaway edition of balance.

I tried to listen to the whole book but, decided not to because I never got into the book. I listened to all but, maybe the last chapter. Or was it the last 2 chapters. Well I almost listened to the whole book. But, the book did not interest me that much so I decided to not finish listening to it.

I had never thought much about balance before listening to the book though. And was surprised at some of the problems with balance.

[Sanjana (Sunny) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diving into a new genre can be exciting. Thagard’s book… was not. While some of the information and concepts were generally really informative and did underline his point, others seemed to meander into topics and POVs where he was simply on a tangent and by the latter half, I was skimming the book.

While I do think I walked away interested in his writing and his concepts, I’m not sure this book will stick with me.