The Conscious Mind
The Conscious Mind
Torey, Zoltan
product information
Condition: New, UPC: 9780262527101, Publication Date: Fri, August 1, 2014, Type: Paperback ,
join & start selling
description
e mind: how the brain acquired self-awareness, functional autonomy, the ability to think, and the power of speech.

How did the human mind emerge from the collection of neurons that makes up the brain? How did the brain acquire self-awareness, functional autonomy, language, and the ability to think, to understand itself and the world? In this volume in the Essential Knowledge series, Zoltan Torey offers an accessible and concise description of the evolutionary breakthrough that created the human mind.

Drawing on insights from evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and linguistics, Torey reconstructs the sequence of events by which Homo erectus became Homo sapiens. He describes the augmented functioning that underpins the emergent mind--a new ("off-line") internal response system with which the brain accesses itself and then forms a selection mechanism for mentally generated behavior options. This functional breakthrough, Torey argues, explains how the animal brain's "awareness" became self-accessible and reflective--that is, how the human brain acquired a conscious mind. Consciousness, unlike animal awareness, is not a unitary phenomenon but a composite process. Torey's account shows how protolanguage evolved into language, how a brain subsystem for the emergent mind was built, and why these developments are opaque to introspection. We experience the brain's functional autonomy, he argues, as free will.

Torey proposes that once life began, consciousness had to emerge--because consciousness is the informational source of the brain's behavioral response. Consciousness, he argues, is not a newly acquired "quality," "cosmic principle," "circuitry arrangement," or "epiphenomenon," as others have argued, but an indispensable working component of the living system's manner of functioning.

reviews

Be the first to write a review

member goods

No member items were found under this heading.

notems store

The Psychology of Money: Timeless ...

by Housel, Morgan

Paperback /Paperback

$11.69

Evading Honesty

by Pardazi, Shawn

Paperback /Paperback

$17.46

Anger Management: 12 Step Guide ...

by Vaden, Ray

Paperback /Paperback

$11.25

listens & views

TOMORROWLAND (DIG)

by BLACK MAJESTY

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$16.99

LIVE & ON FIRE

by LOVE DOGS

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$18.25

AT LONG LAST SHYLOS SONG

by CLEVELAND,AL

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$17.49

REALITY SUBSTRATE

by NASIM,J.M./PSYCHEDELIC JEW'S HARP

COMPACT DISC

out of stock

$15.49

Return Policy

All sales are final

Shipping

No special shipping considerations available.
Shipping fees determined at checkout.
promoting relevance through notable postings ]

A notem is a meaningful post that highlights an experience, idea, topic of interest, an event ... whatever a member believes worthy of discussion. Each notem becomes a pathway by which to make meaningful connections.

notems is a free, global social network that rewards members by the number and quality of notems they post.

notemote® © . Privacy Policy. Developed by Hartmann Software Group