From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds"A supremely enjoyable, intoxicating work." —Nature How did we come to have minds? For centuries, poets, philosophers, psychologists, and physicists have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled abilities. Disciples of Darwin have explained how natural selection produced plants, but what about the human mind? In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Daniel C. Dennett builds on recent discoveries from biology and computer science to show, step by step, how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. A crucial shift occurred when humans developed the ability to share memes, or ways of doing things not based in genetic instinct. Competition among memes produced thinking tools powerful enough that our minds don’t just perceive and react, they create and comprehend. An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers and scientists, From Bacteria to Bach and Back will delight and entertain all those curious about how the mind works. |
From inside the book
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... perspectives on what is going on. But you do have to let go of some ideas that are dear to many. There are distinguished thinkers who have disagreed with my proposals over the years, and I expect some will continue to find my new forays ...
... perspective. This allows us to frame new questions and sketch new answers, which then sets the stage for the hardest inversion of all: seeing what consciousness looks like from the new perspective. It's a challenging route, but there ...
... perspective of the Defenders. I am going to describe this dynamic process metaphorically at the outset to provide a simple framework for building a less metaphorical, more explicit and factual understanding of what is happening. Suppose ...
... perspective has long lived under an undeserved cloud of suspicion. Contrary to widespread belief, as we shall see, adaptationism is alive and well in evolutionary biology. 1 One of my favorites: Four people come to a.
... perspective on our history, we actually have to go back to the time before bacteria, before life in any form existed, since some of the demands on getting life going at all send important echoes down the eons to explain features of our ...
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From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds Daniel Clement Dennett,Daniel C. Dennett No preview available - 2017 |