Evolving the Mind

Evolving the Mind has two main themes: how ideas about the mind evolved in science; and how the mind itself evolved in nature. The mind came into physical science when it was realised first that it is the activity of a physical object a brain which makes a mind; and secondly that our theories of nature are largely mental constructions artificial extensions of an inner model of the world which we inherited from our distant ancestors. From both of these perspectives consciousness is the great enigma. If consciousness evolved however it is in some sense a material thing whatever else may be said of it. Physics chemistry molecular biology brain function and evolutionary biology - almost the whole of science - is involved and there can be no expert in all these fields. So the style of the book is simple almost conversational. The excitement is that we seem to be close to a scientific theory of consciousness. Language: English