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

by Nicholas Humphrey

Overview

This book is a tour-de-force on how human consciousness may have evolved. From the "phantom pain" experienced by people who have lost their limbs to the uncanny faculty of "blindsight," Humphrey argues that raw sensations are central to all conscious states and that consciousness must have evolved, just like all other mental faculties, over time from our ancestors' bodily responses to pain and pleasure. '

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387987194
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	06/18/1999
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1992
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

Mind and Body.- “Puzzling Work”: An Aside About Language.- What Happened in History: The Inside Story.- The Double Province of the Senses.- “What Do We See?”.- Color is the Keyboard.- In the Realm of the Senses.- Shuttle Vision.- “It Must Look Queer!”.- New Arrangements.- Mind-Blindness and Blind-Mindness.- More About Blindsight.- A Fire In The Hand; A Dagger of the Mind.- He Thought He Saw An Elephant.- Here It Lies.- Here What Lies? A Chapter About Definition.- Five Characteristics in Search of A Theory.- The Problem of Ownership (A Tack to Starboard).- The Question Of Indexicals (A Tack to Port).- Plus CA Change....- A Little Mind Music.- Specific Nerve Energies?.- Smoke Without Fire.- Time Present.- Hurrah!.- Being and Nothingness.- 229.- 235.

Editorial Reviews

Himself a theoretical psychologist involved in primate studies (he worked with Dian Fossey in Rwanda), but equally au fait with philosophy and literature (he edited Granta), Humphrey seeks to demonstrate that consciousness is real, not a mere verbal leftover of theology; and he does this by tracing through a variety of experiments (actual and theoretical) its evolution and functions... Many pleasures in this powerful work.
—The Sunday Times, 7 July 1992

Roy Porter

Nicholas Humphrey's new book about the mind is exceptionally readable, and packed with fascinating psychological information and ingenious speculation... Humphrey writes with an unusual combination of verve, lucidity and charm.
—The Guardian, 4 June 1992

Michael Lockwood

An eloquent and persuasive theory - impossible to summarise briefly - on how the water of the physical brain is turned into the wine of consciousness. No other theoretical psychologist is so accessibly clear, and at the same time so provocatively philosophical.
—The Observer, 8 August 1993

Lorna Sage

With a seductive combination of enthusisatic zeal and effortless lucidity, [Humphrey] draws us into his personal map of the conscious world. The temptations he offers are difficult to resist.
—Literary Review, July 1992

Richard Horton