A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness
Condition: SECONDHAND
NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.
Author: Merlin Donald, Ph.D. (Queen's University)
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 392
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.
Author: Merlin Donald, Ph.D. (Queen's University)
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 392
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.
Description
NB: This is a secondhand book in very good condition. See our FAQs for more information. Please note that the jacket image is indicative only. A description of our secondhand books is not always available. Please contact us if you have a question about this title.
Author: Merlin Donald, Ph.D. (Queen's University)
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 392
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.
Author: Merlin Donald, Ph.D. (Queen's University)
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 392
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 Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness