The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of the Generative Mind

Corballis, Michael C.

ISBN 10: 0195066758 / ISBN 13: 9780195066753

Edité par Oxford University Press, New York, 1991

A propos de cet article

25 cm, 366, illus. A Professor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, the author has produced a convincing new view of the brain and how its development began to differ between humans and apes with man's ability to use his hands for making things.

N° de réf. du vendeur 33250

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of the Generative Mind
• Éditeur: Oxford University Press, New York
• Date de parution: 1991
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0195066758
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780195066753
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• Édition: First Printing.
• État de l'article: very good, very good

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

This study addresses the question of what makes humans unique, of how sharply we differ from other animals. It begins with evidence on the split of the hominids from the apes, and on the main steps in hominid evolution since then. Its main theme is that the distinctive versatility of human thought and mental representation depends on special properties of the left side of the brain. One manifestation of this lop-sidedness is the predominance of right-handedness in human populations, a tract that does not seem to exist in animals. Another is the special properties of human language, which is represented in the left cerebral hemisphere. The text argues that the human left hemisphere has evolved a specialization for an open-ended, generative form of mental representation. This underlies language and also the way in which we construct, represent and understand objects. It probably colours many other specifically human activities, such as complementary mode of thought that has more holistic, analogue properties, and that goes back much further in evolution.

Présentation de l'éditeur

What is it that allows human beings to think the way we do? What enables us to communicate with one another through the use of speech? Is the difference between Homo sapiens and other apes simply a matter of degree or are we unique and discontinuous from other species? Michael C. Corballis argues that this century-old debate lies in the fact that humans are the only primates that are predominantly right-handed, a sign of the specialization of the left hemisphere of the brain for language. Surveying the current views of evolution using evidence from archaeology, linguistics, neurology, and genetics, Corballis takes us on a fascinating tour of the origins and implications of the structure of the human brain, accounting for the dominance of humanity over all species.