Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness
    Unavailable
    A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness
    Unavailable
    A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness
    Ebook324 pages3 hours

    A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

    By Nicholas Humphrey

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    How does the water of the brain yield the wine of conscious experience? What is the link between bodily activity and our inner feeling of what it’s like to be our selves?The problem of qualia — the so-called "hard problem" of consciousness — has intrigued philosophers for generations and remains the greatest challenge to contemporary science. In this path-breaking book, Nicholas Humphrey examines the issues in the light of evolutionary history and proposes a solution very different from any previously offered. He suggests that instead of focusing on second-order mental faculties, or "thoughts about thoughts", we need to look at the raw sensations themselves which are central to all conscious states. He takes the reader on an exhilarating journey through little-known areas of biology, psychology and philosophy, to discover the origins of all forms of self-awareness in the primitive pain and pleasure responses of our distant ancestors.Packed with psychological information and ingenious speculation, A History of the Mind not only recasts the debate about the nature of conscious experience but provides fascinating insights into many other topics along the way. Already a classic, this book is as informative and entertaining as it is profound.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateJun 1, 1992
    ISBN9781626753310
    Unavailable
    A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

    Read more from Nicholas Humphrey

    Related to A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Tricky Problem with Other Minds

      Aug 29, 2019

      Human “exceptionalism” is for many people an unquestioned assumption. For the religious, it is a God-given fact; for humanists, it is a celebration of our unique mental capacities. No other species has created music, art, literature, or built skyscra

      20 min read

    • Article

      Consciousness Isn’t Self-Centered

      Feb 27, 2020

      The great mystery of consciousness is why matter lights up with felt experience. After all, we are composed of particles indistinguishable from those swirling around in the sun; the atoms that compose your body were once the ingredients of countless

      10 min read

    • Article

      A Perception Of Something

      Nov 7, 2020

      A Perception Of Something
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Clash of Perspectives on Panpsychism

      Feb 27, 2020

      In recent years the concept of panpsychism, “which entertains the possibility that all matter is imbued with consciousness,” writes Annaka Harris, has been firing up cognitive scientists who plumb the nature of consciousness. Some entertain the possi

      7 min read

    • Article

      We Are Beast Machines

      Oct 13, 2021

      I have a childhood memory of looking in the bathroom mirror, and for the first time realizing that my experience at that precise moment—the experience of being me—would at some point come to an end, and that “I” would die. I must have been about 8 or

      8 min read

    • Article

      What Time Feels Like When You’re Improvising

      Jun 7, 2018

      This article is part of Nautilus’ month-long exploration of the science and art of time. Read the introduction here. Don’t look at the clock! Now tell me: How much time has passed since you first logged on to your computer today? Time may be a proper

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Neurology of Flow States

      Oct 14, 2020

      Don’t look at the clock! Now tell me: How much time has passed since you first logged on to your computer today? Time may be a property of physics, but it is also a property of the mind, which ultimately makes it a product of the brain. Time measures

      5 min read

    • Article

      We Are Beast Machines

      Dec 20, 2021

      Happy Holidays. In this special issue we are reprinting our top stories of the past year. This article first appeared online in our “The Edge” issue in October, 2021. I have a childhood memory of looking in the bathroom mirror, and for the first time

      8 min read

    • Article

      My 3 Greatest Revelations

      Nov 17, 2023

      My 3 Greatest Revelations
      4 min read

    • Article

      Changing Your Mind

      Aug 27, 2023

      by Robin McConnell On a spring paddock hill, dismembered by dusk, the broad shouldered boy is reading Keats. While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue. The rim of farm light flecks hayseeds Luminescent

      3 min read

    • Article

      When Neurology Becomes Theology

      Jun 15, 2017

      Early in my neurology residency, a 50-year-old woman insisted on being hospitalized for protection from the FBI spying on her via the TV set in her bedroom. The woman’s physical examination, lab tests, EEGs, scans, and formal neuropsychological testi

      10 min read

    • Article

      The Fine Line Between Reality and Imaginary

      Jul 28, 2021

      We all live in two worlds: a world outside of ourselves containing things that others can also see and hear and touch, and a world inside consisting of our thoughts and imaginations, which only exist in our own mind. Usually, we effortlessly keep the

      5 min read

    • Article

      Human Emotions Are Personal Narratives

      Aug 29, 2019

      For his next book, Joseph LeDoux knew he had to go deep. He had to go back in time, way back, 3.5 billion years ago. The author of the seminal The Emotional Brain, followed by Synaptic Self and Anxious, sensed a missing element in those books on how

      10 min read

    • Article

      WHY WE TALK to Ourselves

      Oct 18, 2022

      WHY WE TALK to Ourselves
      6 min read

    • Article

      Perceptual Triggers

      Nov 7, 2020

      Perceptual Triggers
      20 min read

    • Article

      We Need Conscious Robots

      Apr 27, 2017

      People often ask me whether human-level artificial intelligence will eventually become conscious. My response is: Do you want it to be conscious? I think it is largely up to us whether our machines will wake up. That may sound presumptuous. The mecha

      7 min read

    • Article

      Consciousness Is Just a Feeling

      Mar 3, 2021

      When he was a boy, Mark Solms obsessed over big existential questions. What happens when I die? What makes me who I am? He went on to study neuroscience but soon discovered that neuropsychology had no patience for such open-ended questions about the

      12 min read

    • Article

      How Do We Create Our Reality?

      Mar 2, 2021

      How Do We Create Our Reality?
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mind Or Brain?

      Jan 23, 2024

      THAT LITTLE VOICE that’s narrating your experience as you read this—is it in your mind or in your brain? At first glance, this might seem like a stupid semantic question. But it cuts to the heart of a weighty dilemma for modern science that also has

      2 min read

    • Article

      Student Edition

      Sep 30, 2017

      WITH EMMA LAW RANCE HOMETOWN: Adelaide CURRENTLY LIVING: Oxford RESEARCH: Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience “The first project for my PhD explored how we make decisions when we are missing information, and how this uncertainty influences our c

      8 min read

    • Article

      Split Decisions

      Jun 4, 2018

      Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 288 pp., $28 IN HIS ENGAGING and wide-ranging new book, The Consciousness Instinct, neuroscientist Michael S. Gazzaniga explores a conundrum that has long baffled scientists: “Gazillions of electrical, chemical, and hormon

      5 min read

    Reviews for A History of the Mind; Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

    4.5/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      An interesting book that attempts to explain how consciousness evolved.