Secrets of the Mind: A Tale of Discovery and Mistaken Identity

ISBN-13: 9781461271734 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 230 str.

A.G. Cairns-Smith

Opis

Written in a provocative, witty, and highly accessible style, this is not only a splendid general introduction to the central questions of consciousness and brain science, but also an answer to some of them. The author -- noted Glaswegian chemist A.G. Cairns-Smith -- believes our feelings and sensations are not simply alternative descriptions of neural events but have themselves evolved and have physical effects in the brain as well as physical causes. Secrets of the Mind portrays a vision of the world as it may come to be seen by a future science. Sand, sea water, air, and the atoms from which such materials are made are now well understood by science, but the same can not be said of our personal feelings, our sensations and emotions. Science tells us that these too must be forms of quantum energy if they evolved, yet is only now beginning to explain how.

Spis treści

1 Open Secrets.- 1 Doing as we like.- 2 The two of me.- 3 Qualia en croûte.- 2 An Ominous Secret.- 4 It’s a funny old world.- 5 The light of evolution.- 6 Straight talk, double talk, fast talk.- 3 Secrets Unfolding.- 7 How might brains have feelings?.- 8 Switches.- 9 Arrows and desires.- 10 Humpty Dumpty.- 11 Together again.- 4 The Secret Agent.- 12 Why a phenomenal world?.- 13 A working image.- 14 A strange device.- 15 The fabrics of the world.- Recapitulation.- Coda.- Notes & References.

O autorze

How can we reconcile Shakespeare's account of human behavior and that of modern brain science? That's the central question addressed by the noted Glasgow chemist and writer A.G. Cairns-Smith in this brief, witty, provocative, and highly accessible discussion of conscious awareness, free will, science, and the likely central role of quantum energy in understanding the mind. Secrets of the Mind is not only a splendid discussion of the central questions of consciousness and brain science, but a contribution to answering some of them.