A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness - Couverture rigide

Donald Ph.D., Merlin

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0393049507 ISBN 13 : 9780393049503

Editeur : WW Norton & Co, 2001

Synopsis

A masterful and convincing reassertion of consciousness as an evolutionary triumph and the center of human genius. In this unflinchingly polemical work, Merlin Donald refutes the arguments of certain scientists and philosophers who have dismissed consciousness as a superficial byproduct of evolution, or even an entirely irrelevant factor in human cognition. His persuasive thesis presents the forces, both cultural and neuronal, that power our distinctively human modes of awareness. Donald proposes that the human mind is a hybrid product of interweaving a super-complex form of matter (the brain) with an invisible symbolic web (culture) to form a "distributed" cognitive network. This hybrid mind allowed humanity as a species to break free of the limitations of the mammalian brain. Marshaling evidence from brain and behavioral studies of humans and animals, Donald explains how an expansion of conscious capacity was the key to this revolutionary development and insightfully projects how the human mind might adapt in the future, as we fall increasingly under the spell of symbolic technology. 8 b/w line drawings.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Merlin Donald is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Ontario, Canada.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: WW Norton & Co
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0393049507
• ISBN 13: 9780393049503
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 392
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible