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| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Consciousness Instinct Michael S. Gazzaniga, 2018-04-03 “The Consciousness Instinct could be the clearest and most compelling attempt to demystify the mind yet written.” —Julian Baggini, The Wall Street Journal How do neurons turn into minds? How does physical “stuff”—atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells—create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness. The idea of the brain as a machine, first proposed centuries ago, has led to assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain that dog scientists and philosophers to this day. Gazzaniga asserts that this model has it backward—brains make machines, but they cannot be reduced to one. New research suggests the brain is actually a confederation of independent modules working together. Understanding how consciousness could emanate from such an organization will help define the future of brain science and artificial intelligence, and close the gap between brain and mind. Captivating and accessible, The Consciousness Instinct sets the course for the neuroscience of tomorrow. “A rare opportunity to watch a scientific champion grapple with perhaps our most formidable mystery.” —Eliezer J. Sternberg, The Washington Post “Fascinating.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “One of the great pleasures of this book is watching Gazzaniga’s own brain at work.” —Alan Alda |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Who's in Charge? Michael S. Gazzaniga, 2011-11-15 “Big questions are Gazzaniga’s stock in trade.” —New York Times “Gazzaniga is one of the most brilliant experimental neuroscientists in the world.” —Tom Wolfe “Gazzaniga stands as a giant among neuroscientists, for both the quality of his research and his ability to communicate it to a general public with infectious enthusiasm.” —Robert Bazell, Chief Science Correspondent, NBC News The author of Human, Michael S. Gazzaniga has been called the “father of cognitive neuroscience.” In his remarkable book, Who’s in Charge?, he makes a powerful and provocative argument that counters the common wisdom that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes we cannot control. His well-reasoned case against the idea that we live in a “determined” world is fascinating and liberating, solidifying his place among the likes of Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, V.S. Ramachandran, and other bestselling science authors exploring the mysteries of the human brain. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Mind Matters Michael S. Gazzaniga, 1988 Examining mind-brain interactions in mental states such as anxiety, pain, dreams, depression, love, phobias, and obsessions, the author discusses the complicated way in which the mind interprets the chemical changes in the brain |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Mind's Past Michael S. Gazzaniga, 1998 Why does the human brain insist on interpreting the world and constructing a narrative? Michael S. Gazzaniga shows how our mind and brain accomplish the amazing feat of constructing our past - a process clearly fraught with errors of perception, memory, and judgment. By showing that the specific systems built into our brain do their work automatically and largely outside of our conscious awareness, Gazzaniga calls into question our everyday notions of self and reality. The implications of his ideas reach deeply into the nature of perception and memory, the profundity of human instinct, and the ways we construct who we are and how we fit into the world around us. Gazzaniga explains how the mind interprets data the brain has already processed, making us the last to know. He shows how what we see is frequently an illusion and not at all what our brain is perceiving. False memories become a part of our experience; autobiography is fiction. In exploring how the brain enables the mind, Gazzaniga points us toward one of the greatest mysteries of human evolution: how we become who we are. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The New Mind Readers Russell Poldrack, 2020-10-06 Thinking on 20 watts -- The visible mind -- fMRI grows up -- Can fMRI read minds? -- How do brains change over time? -- Crimes and lies -- Decision neuroscience -- Is mental illness just a brain disease? -- The future of neuroimaging. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Geography of Morals Owen J. Flanagan, 2017 Variations -- On being imprisoned by one's upbringing -- Moral psychologies and moral ecologies -- Bibliographical essay -- First nature -- Classical Chinese sprouts -- Modern moral psychology -- Beyond moral modularity -- Destructive emotions -- Bibliographic essay -- Collisions -- When values collide -- Moral geographies of anger -- Weird anger -- For love's and justice's sake -- Bibliographical essay -- Anthropologies -- Self-variations: philosophical archaeologies -- The content of character. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind Julian Jaynes, 2000-08-15 National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: An Internet in Your Head Daniel Graham, 2021-05-04 Whether we realize it or not, we think of our brains as computers. In neuroscience, the metaphor of the brain as a computer has defined the field for much of the modern era. But as neuroscientists increasingly reevaluate their assumptions about how brains work, we need a new metaphor to help us ask better questions. The computational neuroscientist Daniel Graham offers an innovative paradigm for understanding the brain. He argues that the brain is not like a single computer—it is a communication system, like the internet. Both are networks whose power comes from their flexibility and reliability. The brain and the internet both must route signals throughout their systems, requiring protocols to direct messages from just about any point to any other. But we do not yet understand how the brain manages the dynamic flow of information across its entire network. The internet metaphor can help neuroscience unravel the brain’s routing mechanisms by focusing attention on shared design principles and communication strategies that emerge from parallel challenges. Highlighting similarities between brain connectivity and the architecture of the internet can open new avenues of research and help unlock the brain’s deepest secrets. An Internet in Your Head presents a clear-eyed and engaging tour of brain science as it stands today and where the new paradigm might take it next. It offers anyone with an interest in brains a transformative new way to conceptualize what goes on inside our heads. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Behavior and Culture in One Dimension Dennis Waters, 2021-03-08 Behavior and Culture in One Dimension adopts a broad interdisciplinary approach, presenting a unified theory of sequences and their functions and an overview of how they underpin the evolution of complexity. Sequences of DNA guide the functioning of the living world, sequences of speech and writing choreograph the intricacies of human culture, and sequences of code oversee the operation of our literate technological civilization. These linear patterns function under their own rules, which have never been fully explored. It is time for them to get their due. This book explores the one-dimensional sequences that orchestrate the structure and behavior of our three-dimensional habitat. Using Gibsonian concepts of perception, action, and affordances, as well as the works of Howard Pattee, the book examines the role of sequences in the human behavioral and cultural world of speech, writing, and mathematics. The book offers a Darwinian framework for understanding human cultural evolution and locates the two major informational transitions in the origins of life and civilization. It will be of interest to students and researchers in ecological psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, and the social and biological sciences. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Essential Prosperity Napoleon Hill, James Allen, Wallace D. Wattles, Joseph Murphy, George S. Clason, Florence Scovel Shinn, Arnold Bennett, Ernest Holmes, Emmet Fox, Peter B. Kyne, William Walker Atkinson, Annie Rix Militz, Russell Conwell, Elizabeth Towne, 2022-11-08 The ultimate collection of books for life-changing success It’s time to stop living your life on the margins and claim the financial success you deserve. Essential Prosperity is a treasury of wisdom that will empower you to move from a life of want—defined by debt, fear, and missed possibilities—to one of true success. You have the power and potential to create the life of abundance you’ve always imagined and Essential Prosperity will show you how. Essential Prosperity includes fourteen life changing books from the thought leaders and teachers whose work has changed the world, including: - The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason - Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill - Power of Your Subconscious Mind by Joseph Murphy - As a Man Thinketh by James Allen - Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles - The Game of Life by Florence Scovel Shinn - The Golden Key by Emmet Fox - The Go-Getter by Peter B. Kyne - How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett - Acres of Diamonds by Russell Conwell - Creative Mind and Success by Ernest Holmes - The Secret of Success by William Walker Atkinson - The Life Power and How to Use It by Elizabeth Towne - Prosperity by Annie Rix Militz These experts speak from every background—from self-help and spirituality to finance and business—each of them sharing the secrets to building life changing wealth and prosperity. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Language Instinct Steven Pinker, 2010-12-14 A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book. — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Conscious Annaka Harris, 2019-06-04 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER If you’ve ever wondered how you have the capacity to wonder, some fascinating insights await you in these pages.” --Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals As concise and enlightening as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, this mind-expanding dive into the mystery of consciousness is an illuminating meditation on the self, free will, and felt experience. What is consciousness? How does it arise? And why does it exist? We take our experience of being in the world for granted. But the very existence of consciousness raises profound questions: Why would any collection of matter in the universe be conscious? How are we able to think about this? And why should we? In this wonderfully accessible book, Annaka Harris guides us through the evolving definitions, philosophies, and scientific findings that probe our limited understanding of consciousness. Where does it reside, and what gives rise to it? Could it be an illusion, or a universal property of all matter? As we try to understand consciousness, we must grapple with how to define it and, in the age of artificial intelligence, who or what might possess it. Conscious offers lively and challenging arguments that alter our ideas about consciousness—allowing us to think freely about it for ourselves, if indeed we can. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Ontology and Metaontology Francesco Berto, Matteo Plebani, 2015-01-29 Ontology and Metaontology: A Contemporary Guide is a clear and accessible survey of ontology, focusing on the most recent trends in the discipline. Divided into parts, the first half characterizes metaontology: the discourse on the methodology of ontological inquiry, covering the main concepts, tools, and methods of the discipline, exploring the notions of being and existence, ontological commitment, paraphrase strategies, fictionalist strategies, and other metaontological questions. The second half considers a series of case studies, introducing and familiarizing the reader with concrete examples of the latest research in the field. The basic sub-fields of ontology are covered here via an accessible and captivating exposition: events, properties, universals, abstract objects, possible worlds, material beings, mereology, fictional objects. The guide's modular structure allows for a flexible approach to the subject, making it suitable for both undergraduates and postgraduates looking to better understand and apply the exciting developments and debates taking place in ontology today. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Being You Anil Seth, 2021-10-19 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A Best Book of 2021—Bloomberg Businessweek; A Best Science Book of 2021—The Guardian; A Best Science Book of 2021—Financial Times; A Best Philosophy Book of 2021—Five Books; A Best Book of 2021—The Economist Anil Seth's quest to understand the biological basis of conscious experience is one of the most exciting contributions to twenty-first-century science. What does it mean to “be you”—that is, to have a specific, conscious experience of the world around you and yourself within it? There may be no more elusive or fascinating question. Historically, humanity has considered the nature of consciousness to be a primarily spiritual or philosophical inquiry, but scientific research is now mapping out compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood. Now, internationally renowned neuroscience professor, researcher, and author Anil Seth is offers a window into our consciousness in BEING YOU: A New Science of Consciousness. Anil Seth is both a leading expert on the neuroscience of consciousness and one of most prominent spokespeople for this relatively new field of science. His radical argument is that we do not perceive the world as it objectively is, but rather that we are prediction machines, constantly inventing our world and correcting our mistakes by the microsecond, and that we can now observe the biological mechanisms in the brain that accomplish this process of consciousness. Seth has been interviewed for documentaries aired on the BBC, Netflix, and Amazon and podcasts by Sam Harris, Russell Brand, and Chris Anderson, and his 2017 TED Talk on the topic has been viewed over 11 million times, a testament to his uncanny ability to make unimaginably complex science accessible and entertaining. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Nature's Mind Michael Gazzaniga, 1994-04-20 The co-discoverer of the “split brain” theory tells how science is recasting the age-old question of nature versus nurture to create a startling new view of human behavior. Recent discoveries suggest that natural selection affects not only physical characteristics but also mental processes, from learning to substance abuse. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Experience Scott Lash, 2018-07-04 This book is a radical plea for the centrality of experience in the social and human sciences. Lash argues that a large part of the output of the social sciences today is still shaped by assumptions stemming from positivism, in contrast to the tradition of interpretative social enquiry pioneered by Max Weber. These assumptions are particularly central to economics, with its emphasis on homo economicus, the utility-maximizing actor, but they have infiltrated the other social sciences too. Lash argues for a social sciences based not in positivism’s utilitarian a priori but instead in the a posteriori of grounded and embedded subjective experience. His wide-ranging account starts from considerations of ancient experience via Aristotle’s technics, continues through a politics of Hannah Arendt’s ‘a posteriori’ public sphere and concludes with the contemporary – with technological experience, on the one hand, and with Chinese post-ontological thought, in which the ‘ten thousand things’ themselves are doing the experiencing, on the other. This original book by a leading social and cultural theorist will be of great interest to students and scholars in sociology, cultural studies and throughout the social sciences. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Seeing Things as They Are John R. Searle, 2015-01-28 This book provides a comprehensive account of the intentionality of perceptual experience. With special emphasis on vision Searle explains how the raw phenomenology of perception sets the content and the conditions of satisfaction of experience. The central question concerns the relation between the subjective conscious perceptual field and the objective perceptual field. Everything in the objective field is either perceived or can be perceived. Nothing in the subjective field is perceived nor can be perceived precisely because the events in the subjective field consist of the perceivings , whether veridical or not, of the events in the objective field. Searle begins by criticizing the classical theories of perception and identifies a single fallacy, what he calls the Bad Argument, as the source of nearly all of the confusions in the history of the philosophy of perception. He next justifies the claim that perceptual experiences have presentational intentionality and shows how this justifies the direct realism of his account. In the central theoretical chapters, he shows how it is possible that the raw phenomenology must necessarily determine certain form of intentionality. Searle introduces, in detail, the distinction between different levels of perception from the basic level to the higher levels and shows the internal relation between the features of the experience and the states of affairs presented by the experience. The account applies not just to language possessing human beings but to infants and conscious animals. He also discusses how the account relates to certain traditional puzzles about spectrum inversion, color and size constancy and the brain-in-the-vat thought experiments. In the final chapters he explains and refutes Disjunctivist theories of perception, explains the role of unconscious perception, and concludes by discussing traditional problems of perception such as skepticism. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Consciousness Susan Blackmore, Emily T. Troscianko, 2018-04-27 Is there a theory that explains the essence of consciousness? Or is consciousness itself an illusion? Am I conscious now? Now considered the 'last great mystery of science', consciousness was once viewed with extreme scepticism and rejected by mainstream scientists. It is now a significant area of research, albeit a contentious one, as well as a rapidly expanding area of study for students of psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. This edition of Consciousness, revised by author team Susan Blackmore and Emily Troscianko, explores the key theories and evidence in consciousness studies ranging from neuroscience and psychology to quantum theories and philosophy. It examines why the term ‘consciousness’ has no recognised definition and provides an opportunity to delve into personal intuitions about the self, mind, and consciousness. Featuring comprehensive coverage of all core topics in the field, this edition includes: Why the problem of consciousness is so hard Neuroscience and the neural correlates of consciousness Why we might be mistaken about our own minds The apparent difference between conscious and unconscious Theories of attention, free will, and self and other The evolution of consciousness in animals and machines Altered states from meditation to drugs and dreaming Complete with key concept boxes, profiles of well-known thinkers, and questions and activities suitable for both independent study and group work, Consciousness provides a complete introduction to this fascinating field. Additional resources are available on the accompanying companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/blackmore |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: This Explains Everything John Brockman, 2013-01-22 Drawn from the cutting-edge frontiers of science, This Explains Everything will revolutionize your understanding of the world. What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation? This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org (The world's smartest website—The Guardian), posed to the world's most influential minds. Flowing from the horizons of physics, economics, psychology, neuroscience, and more, This Explains Everything presents 150 of the most surprising and brilliant theories of the way of our minds, societies, and universe work. Jared Diamond on biological electricity • Nassim Nicholas Taleb on positive stress • Steven Pinker on the deep genetic roots of human conflict • Richard Dawkins on pattern recognition • Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek on simplicity • Lisa Randall on the Higgs mechanism • BRIAN Eno on the limits of intuition • Richard Thaler on the power of commitment • V. S. Ramachandran on the neural code of consciousness • Nobel Prize winner ERIC KANDEL on the power of psychotherapy • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Lord Acton's Dictum • Lawrence M. Krauss on the unification of electricity and magnetism • plus contributions by Martin J. Rees • Kevin Kelly • Clay Shirky • Daniel C. Dennett • Sherry Turkle • Philip Zimbardo • Lee Smolin • Rebecca Newberger Goldstein • Seth Lloyd • Stewart Brand • George Dyson • Matt Ridley |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Shadow Drawing Francesca Fiorani, 2022-05-03 “[The Shadow Drawing] reorients our perspective, distills a life and brings it into focus—the very work of revision and refining that its subject loved best.” —Parul Sehgal, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) An entirely new account of Leonardo the artist and Leonardo the scientist, and why they were one and the same man. Leonardo da Vinci has long been celebrated as the epitome of genius. He was the masterful painter who gave us the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, and the visionary inventor who anticipated airplanes, hot-air balloons, and other technological marvels. But what was the connection between Leonardo the painter and Leonardo the scientist? And what can a mysterious, long-lost book teach us about how Leonardo truly conceived his art? Shortly after Leonardo’s death, his peers and rivals created the myth of the two Leonardos: there was Leonardo the artist and then, later in life, Leonardo the scientist. In this pathbreaking biographical interpretation, the art historian Francesca Fiorani tells a very different and much more interesting story. Taking a fresh look at Leonardo’s celebrated but challenging notebooks as well as other, often obscure sources, Fiorani shows that Leonardo became fluent in science when he was still a young man. As an apprentice in a Florence studio, he was especially interested in the science of optics, which tells us how we see what we see. For the rest of his life he remained, according to a close observer, obsessed with optics, believing that his art would grow only as his knowledge of light and shadow deepened. Given Leonardo’s scientific bent, one might think this meant that he wanted to turn himself into a human camera. In fact, he aspired to use science to capture—as no artist before him had ever done—the interior lives of his subjects, to paint the human soul in its smallest, tenderest motions and vicissitudes. And then he hoped to take one further step: to gather his scientific knowledge together in a book that would be even more important than his paintings. His Treatise on Painting would be disfigured, ignored, and lost in subsequent centuries; now, Fiorani traces this singular work’s byzantine path through history and reconstructs the wisdom Leonardo hoped it would impart. Ranging from the teeming streets of Florence to the most delicate brushstrokes on the surface of the Mona Lisa, The Shadow Drawing vividly reconstructs Leonardo’s life while teaching us to look anew at his greatest paintings. The result is both a stirring biography and a bold reconsideration of how the Renaissance understood science and art—and of what was lost when the two were sundered. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Self-Knowledge for Humans Quassim Cassam, 2014-11-27 Human beings are not model epistemic citizens. Our reasoning can be careless and uncritical, and our beliefs, desires, and other attitudes aren't always as they ought rationally to be. Our beliefs can be eccentric, our desires irrational and our hopes hopelessly unrealistic. Our attitudes are influenced by a wide range of non-epistemic or non-rational factors, including our character, our emotions, and powerful unconscious biases. Yet we are rarely conscious of such influences. Self-ignorance is not something to which human beings are immune. In this book Quassim Cassam develops an account of self-knowledge which tries to do justice to these and other respects in which humans aren't model epistemic citizens. He rejects rationalist and other mainstream philosophical accounts of self-knowledge on the grounds that, in more than one sense, they aren't accounts of self-knowledge for humans. Instead he defends the view that inferences from behavioural and psychological evidence are a basic source of human self-knowledge. On this account, self-knowledge is a genuine cognitive achievement and self-ignorance is almost always on the cards. As well as explaining knowledge of our own states of mind, Cassam also accounts for what he calls 'substantial' self-knowledge, including knowledge of our values, emotions, and character. He criticizes philosophical accounts of self-knowledge for neglecting substantial self-knowledge, and concludes with a discussion of the value of self-knowledge. This book tries to do for philosophy what behavioural economics tries to do for economics. Just as behavioural economics is the economics of ^homo sapiens, as distinct from the economics of an ideally rational and self homo economics, so Cassam argues that philosophy should focus on the human predicament rather than on the reasoning and self-knowledge of an idealized homo philosophicus. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: How the Mind Changed Joseph Jebelli, 2022-07-12 The extraordinary story of how the human brain evolved… and is still evolving. We’ve come a long way. The earliest human had a brain as small as a child’s fist; ours are four times bigger, with spectacular abilities and potential we are only just beginning to understand. This is How the Mind Changed, a seven-million-year journey through our own heads, packed with vivid stories, groundbreaking science, and thrilling surprises. Discover how memory has almost nothing to do with the past; meditation rewires our synapses; magic mushroom use might be responsible for our intelligence; climate accounts for linguistic diversity; and how autism teaches us hugely positive lessons about our past and future. Dr. Joseph Jebelli’s In Pursuit of Memory was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and longlisted for the Wellcome. In this, his eagerly awaited second book, he draws on deep insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophy to guide us through the unexpected changes that shaped our brains. From genetic accidents and environmental forces to historical and cultural advances, he explores how our brain’s evolution turned us into Homo sapiens and beyond. A single mutation is all it takes. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Self Comes to Mind Antonio Damasio, 2011-08-31 ‘Will give pleasure to anyone interested in original thinking about the brain...Breathtakingly original’ Financial Times The trailblazing investigation of a question that has confounded us for centuries: how is consciousness created? In Self Comes to Mind, world-renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio goes against the long-standing idea that consciousness is separate from the body, presenting compelling new scientific evidence that consciousness - what we think of as a mind with a self - is in fact a biological process created by a living organism. His view entails a radical change in the way the history of the conscious mind is viewed and told, suggesting that the brain’s development of a human self is a challenge to nature’s indifference. Groundbreaking ideas and beautifully written, this is essential reading for anyone curious about the foundations of mind and self. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Really Hard Problem Owen Flanagan, 2009-02-13 A noted philosopher proposes a naturalistic (rather than supernaturalistic) way to solve the really hard problem: how to live in a meaningful way—how to live a life that really matters—even as a finite material being living in a material world. If consciousness is the hard problem in mind science—explaining how the amazing private world of consciousness emerges from neuronal activity—then the really hard problem, writes Owen Flanagan in this provocative book, is explaining how meaning is possible in the material world. How can we make sense of the magic and mystery of life naturalistically, without an appeal to the supernatural? How do we say truthful and enchanting things about being human if we accept the fact that we are finite material beings living in a material world, or, in Flanagan's description, short-lived pieces of organized cells and tissue? Flanagan's answer is both naturalistic and enchanting. We all wish to live in a meaningful way, to live a life that really matters, to flourish, to achieve eudaimonia—to be a happy spirit. Flanagan calls his empirical-normative inquiry into the nature, causes, and conditions of human flourishing eudaimonics. Eudaimonics, systematic philosophical investigation that is continuous with science, is the naturalist's response to those who say that science has robbed the world of the meaning that fantastical, wishful stories once provided. Flanagan draws on philosophy, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and psychology, as well as on transformative mindfulness and self-cultivation practices that come from such nontheistic spiritual traditions as Buddhism, Confucianism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism, in his quest. He gathers from these disciplines knowledge that will help us understand the nature, causes, and constituents of well-being and advance human flourishing. Eudaimonics can help us find out how to make a difference, how to contribute to the accumulation of good effects—how to live a meaningful life. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Surfing Uncertainty Andy Clark, 2015-10-02 How is it that thoroughly physical material beings such as ourselves can think, dream, feel, create and understand ideas, theories and concepts? How does mere matter give rise to all these non-material mental states, including consciousness itself? An answer to this central question of our existence is emerging at the busy intersection of neuroscience, psychology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. In this groundbreaking work, philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark explores exciting new theories from these fields that reveal minds like ours to be prediction machines - devices that have evolved to anticipate the incoming streams of sensory stimulation before they arrive. These predictions then initiate actions that structure our worlds and alter the very things we need to engage and predict. Clark takes us on a journey in discovering the circular causal flows and the self-structuring of the environment that define the predictive brain. What emerges is a bold, new, cutting-edge vision that reveals the brain as our driving force in the daily surf through the waves of sensory stimulation. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Conscience Patricia Churchland, 2019-06-04 How do we determine right from wrong? Conscience illuminates the answer through science and philosophy. In her brilliant work Touching a Nerve, Patricia S. Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, drew from scientific research on the brain to understand its philosophical and ethical implications for identity, consciousness, free will, and memory. In Conscience, she explores how moral systems arise from our physical selves in combination with environmental demands. All social groups have ideals for behavior, even though ethics vary among different cultures and among individuals within each culture. In trying to understand why, Churchland brings together an understanding of the influences of nature and nurture. She looks to evolution to elucidate how, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to cooperate, and to care. She shows how children grow up in society to learn, through repetition and rewards, the norms, values, and behavior that their parents embrace. Conscience delves into scientific studies, particularly the fascinating work on twins, to deepen our understanding of whether people have a predisposition to embrace specific ethical stands. Research on psychopaths illuminates the knowledge about those who abide by no moral system and the explanations science gives for these disturbing individuals. Churchland then turns to philosophy—that of Socrates, Aquinas, and contemporary thinkers like Owen Flanagan—to explore why morality is central to all societies, how it is transmitted through the generations, and why different cultures live by different morals. Her unparalleled ability to join ideas rarely put into dialogue brings light to a subject that speaks to the meaning of being human. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Descartes' Error Antonio Damasio, 2005-09-27 An ambitious and meticulous foray into the nature of being. -- The Boston Globe A landmark exploration of the relationship between emotion and reason Since Descartes famously proclaimed, I think, therefore I am, science has often overlooked emotions as the source of a person’s true being. Even modern neuroscience has tended, until recently, to concentrate on the cognitive aspects of brain function, disregarding emotions. This attitude began to change with the publication of Descartes’ Error in 1995. Antonio Damasio—one of the world’s leading neurologists (The New York Times)—challenged traditional ideas about the connection between emotions and rationality. In this wondrously engaging book, Damasio takes the reader on a journey of scientific discovery through a series of case studies, demonstrating what many of us have long suspected: emotions are not a luxury, they are essential to rational thinking and to normal social behavior. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Physical Intelligence Scott Grafton, 2020-01-07 'An instant classic' Michael S. Gazzaniga, author of The Consciousness Instinct How do you pick the right moment to cross a busy road? Or decide if you can drive through a storm? What helps you discover a shortcut to a familiar route? The answer is PHYSICAL INTELLIGENCE. Renowned neuroscientist, doctor and keen climber Scott Grafton draws on the very latest research, experiences with patients and his own dangerous hikes in the wilderness to explore the hidden depths of this silent intellect we all possess. Physical Intelligence explains the science behind our oldest ability and takes a fascinating and vital look at how we could and should use it better. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: This is Your Brain on Music Daniel Levitin, 2019-07-04 Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience. Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand it, and its role in human life |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Journey of the Mind Ogi Ogas, Sai Gaddam, 2023-02-21 Two neuroscientists reveal why consciousness exists and how it works by examining eighteen increasingly intelligent minds, from microbes to humankind—and beyond. Why do you exist? How did atoms and molecules transform into sentient creatures that experience longing, regret, compassion, and even marvel at their own existence? What does it truly mean to have a mind—to think? Science has offered few answers to these existential questions until now. Journey of the Mind is the first book to offer a unified account of the mind that explains how consciousness, language, self-awareness, and civilization arose incrementally out of chaos. The journey begins three billion years ago with the emergence of the universe’s simplest possible mind. From there, the book explores the nanoscopic archaeon, whose thinking machinery consists of a handful of molecules, then advances through amoebas, worms, frogs, birds, monkeys, and humans, explaining what each “new” mind could do that previous minds could not. Though they admire the triumph of human consciousness, Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam argue that humans are hardly the most sophisticated minds on the planet. The same physical principles that produce human self-awareness are leading cities and nation-states to develop “superminds,” and perhaps planting the seeds for even higher forms of consciousness. Written in lively, accessible language accompanied by vivid illustrations, Journey of the Mind is a mind-bending work of popular science, the first general book to share the cutting-edge mathematical basis for consciousness, language, and the self. It shows how a “unified theory of the mind” can explain the mind’s greatest mysteries—and offer clues about the ultimate fate of all minds in the universe. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Feeling of Life Itself Christof Koch, 2019-10-01 A thought-provoking argument that consciousness—more widespread than previously assumed—is the feeling of being alive, not a type of computation or a clever hack In The Feeling of Life Itself, Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted—the feeling of being alive. Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists track the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the organ of the mind. But why the brain and not, say, the liver? How can the brain—three pounds of highly excitable matter, a piece of furniture in the universe, subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece—give rise to subjective experience? Koch argues that what is needed to answer these questions is a quantitative theory that starts with experience and proceeds to the brain. In The Feeling of Life Itself, Koch outlines such a theory, based on integrated information. Koch describes how the theory explains many facts about the neurology of consciousness and how it has been used to build a clinically useful consciousness meter. The theory predicts that many, and perhaps all, animals experience the sights and sounds of life; consciousness is much more widespread than conventionally assumed. Contrary to received wisdom, however, Koch argues that programmable computers will not have consciousness. Even a perfect software model of the brain is not conscious. Its simulation is fake consciousness. Consciousness is not a special type of computation—it is not a clever hack. Consciousness is about being. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Language in Our Brain Angela D. Friederici, 2017-11-16 A comprehensive account of the neurobiological basis of language, arguing that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans' capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Psychological Science Michael S. Gazzaniga, Todd F. Heatherton, Diane F. Halpern, 2016 Reflecting the latest APA Guidelines and accompanied by an exciting, new, formative, adaptive online learning tool, Psychological Science, Fifth Edition, will train your students to be savvy, scientific thinkers. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Consciousness Instinct Michael S. Gazzaniga, 2018-04 |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Wired For Love Stephanie Cacioppo, 2022-04-07 From the world's foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love; how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage, to sharing an office at the University of Chicago. After seven years of being inseparable at work and home, she lost her beloved husband following a devastating battle with cancer. In Wired for Love, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo tells not just a science story, but also a love story. She shares revelatory insights into how we fall in love, and why; what makes love last; and how we process love lost - all grounded in cutting-edge findings in brain chemistry and behavioural science. Woven through it all is her moving personal story, from astonishment, to unbreakable bond, to grief and healing. Her experience and her work enrich each other, creating a singular blend of science and lyricism that's essential reading for anyone looking for connection. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Rethinking Consciousness Michael S. A. Graziano, 2021-04-20 “A first-class intellectual adventure.” —Brian Greene, author of Until the End of Time Illuminating his groundbreaking theory of consciousness, known as the attention schema theory, Michael S. A. Graziano traces the evolution of the mind over millions of years, with examples from the natural world, to show how neurons first allowed animals to develop simple forms of attention and then to construct awareness of the external world and of the self. His theory has fascinating implications for the future: it may point the way to engineers for building consciousness artificially, and even someday taking the natural consciousness of a person and uploading it into a machine for a digital afterlife. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Forty Studies that Changed Psychology Roger R. Hock, 2005 1. Biology and Human Behavior. One Brain or Two, Gazzaniga, M.S. (1967). The split brain in man. More Experience = Bigger Brain? Rosenzweig, M.R., Bennett, E.L. & Diamond M.C. (1972). Brain changes in response to experience. Are You a Natural? Bouchard, T., Lykken, D., McGue, M., Segal N., & Tellegen, A. (1990). Sources of human psychological difference: The Minnesota study of twins raised apart. Watch Out for the Visual Cliff! Gibson, E.J., & Walk, R.D. (1960). The visual cliff. 2. Perception and Consciousness. What You See Is What You've Learned. Turnbull C.M. (1961). Some observations regarding the experience and behavior of the BaMuti Pygmies. To Sleep, No Doubt to Dream... Aserinsky, E. & Kleitman, N. (1953). Regularly occurring periods of eye mobility and concomitant phenomena during sleep. Dement W. (1960). The effect of dream deprivation. Unromancing the Dream... Hobson, J.A. & McCarley, R.W. (1977). The brain as a dream-state generator: An activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process. Acting as if You Are Hypnotized Spanos, N.P. (1982). Hypnotic behavior: A cognitive, social, psychological perspective. 3. Learning and Conditioning. It's Not Just about Salivating Dogs! Pavlov, I.P.(1927). Conditioned reflexes. Little Emotional Albert. Watson J.B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional responses. Knock Wood. Skinner, B.F. (1948). Superstition in the pigeon. See Aggression...Do Aggression! Bandura, A., Ross, D. & Ross, S.A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. 4. Intelligence, Cognition, and Memory. What You Expect Is What You Get. Rosenthal, R. & Jacobson, L. (1966). Teacher's expectancies: Determinates of pupils' IQ gains. Just How are You Intelligent? H. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. Maps in Your Mind. Tolman, E.C. (1948). Cognitive maps in rats and men. Thanks for the Memories. Loftus, E.F. (1975). Leading questions and the eyewitness report. 5. Human Development. Discovering Love. Harlow, H.F.(1958). The nature of love. Out of Sight, but Not Out of Mind. Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child: The development of object concept. How Moral are You? Kohlberg, L.., (1963). The development of children's orientations toward a moral order: Sequence in the development of moral thought. In Control and Glad of It! Langer, E.J. & Rodin, J. (1976). The effects of choice and enhanced responsibility for the aged: A field experiment in an institutional setting. 6. Emotion and Motivation. A Sexual Motivation... Masters, W.H. & Johnson, V.E. (1966). Human sexual response. I Can See It All Over Your Face! Ekman, P. & Friesen, V.W. (1971). Constants across cultures in the face and emotion. Life, Change, and Stress. Holmes, T.H. & Rahe, R.H. (1967). The Social Readjustment Rating Scale. Thoughts Out of Tune. Festinger, L. & Carlsmith, J.M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. 7. Personality. Are You the Master of Your Fate? Rotter, J.B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Masculine or Feminine or Both? Bem, S.L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Racing Against Your Heart. Friedman, M. & Rosenman, R.H. (1959). Association of specific overt behavior pattern with blood and cardiovascular findings. The One; The Many..., Triandis, H., Bontempo, R., Villareal, M., Asai, M. & Lucca, N. (1988). Individualism and collectivism: Cross-cultural perspectives on self-ingroup relationships. 8. Psychopathology. Who's Crazy Here, Anyway? Rosenhan, D.L. (1973). On Being sane in insane places. Learning to Be Depressed. Seligman, M.E.P., & Maier, S.F. (1967). Failure to escape traumatic shock. You're Getting Defensive Again! Freud, A. (1946). The ego and mechanisms of defense. Crowding into the Behavioral Sink. Calhoun, J.B. (1962). Population density and social pathology. 9. Psychotherapy. Choosing Your Psychotherapist. Smith, M.L. & Glass, G.V. (1977). Meta-analysis of psychotherapy outcome studies. Relaxing Your Fears Away. Wolpe, J. (1961). The systematic desensitization of neuroses. Projections of Who You Are. Rorschach, H. (1942). Psychodiagnostics: A diagnostic test based on perception. Picture This! Murray, H.A. (1938). Explorations in personality. 10. Social Psychology. Not Practicing What You Preach. LaPiere, R.T. (1934). Attitudes and actions. The Power of Conformity. Asch, S.E. (1955). Opinions and social pressure. To Help or Not to Help. Darley, J.M. & Latané, B. (1968). Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Obey at Any Cost. Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Metazoa: Animal Minds and the Birth of Consciousness Peter Godfrey-Smith, 2020-10-29 The follow-up to the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Other MindsA Times and Sunday Times Book of the YearA Waterstones Best Book of 2020 The scuba-diving philosopher explores the origins of animal consciousness. |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: Blowback Christopher Simpson, 1993-08-14 |
| gazzaniga the consciousness instinct: The Consciousness Instinct Michael S. Gazzaniga, 2018-04-03 How do neurons turn into minds? How does physical 'stuff'―atoms, molecules, chemicals, and cells―create the vivid and various worlds inside our heads? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. [This book] puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness. The idea of the brain as a machine, first proposed centuries ago, has led to assumptions about the relationship between mind and brain that dog scientists and philosophers to this day. [The author] asserts that this model has it backward―brains make machines, but they cannot be reduced to one. New research suggests the brain is actually a confederation of independent modules working together. Understanding how consciousness could emanate from such an organization will help define the future of brain science and artificial intelligence, and close the gap between brain and mind.-- |
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