Download or read book The Crucible of Consciousness written by Zoltan Torey and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2009-04-17 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary examination of the evolutionary breakthroughs that rendered the brain accessible to itself. In The Crucible of Consciousness, Zoltan Torey offers a theory of the mind and its central role in evolution. He traces the evolutionary breakthrough that rendered the brain accessible to itself and shows how the mind-boosted brain works. He identifies what it is that separates the human's self-reflective consciousness from mere animal awareness, and he maps its neural and linguistic underpinnings. And he argues, controversially, that the neural technicalities of reflective awareness can be neither algorithmic nor spiritual—neither a computer nor a ghost in the machine. The human mind is unique; it is not only the epicenter of our knowledge but also the outer limit of our intellectual reach. Not to solve the riddle of the self-aware mind, writes Torey, goes against the evolutionary thrust that created it. Torey proposes a model that brings into a single focus all the elements that make up the puzzle: how the brain works, its functional components and their interactions; how language evolved and how syntax evolved out of the semantic substrate by way of neural transactions; and why the mind-endowed brain deceives itself with entelechy-type impressions. Torey first traces the language-linked emergence of the mind, the subsystem of the brain that enables it to be aware of itself. He then explores this system: how consciousness works, why it is not transparent to introspection, and what sense it makes in the context of evolution. The “consciousness revolution” and the integrative focus of neuroscience have made it possible to make concrete formerly mysterious ideas about the human mind. Torey's model of the mind is the logical outcome of this, highlighting a coherent and meaningful role for a reflectively aware humanity.
Download or read book The Crucible of the Mind written by Barrie M Biven and published by Troubador Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a stirring invitation to any reader who is interested in having a general sense of how the mind works and of the dominant role of mental conflict in everyday life. It is a topical reminder of the importance of Sigmund Freud the psychoanalyst, but also Freud the psychiatrist, neurologist, author and courageous natural scientist. However, this work is not a mere repetition or enumeration of Freud’s theories or descriptions of clinical cases. The book's primary purpose is to provide the reader with an introduction to important contemporary psychoanalytic ideas that modify and build on Freud’s classical theories.
Download or read book The Crucible of Consciousness written by Zoltan Torey and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Urban Crucible written by Gary B. Nash and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Urban Crucible boldly reinterprets colonial life and the origins of the American Revolution. Through a century-long history of three seaport towns--Boston, New York, and Philadelphia--Gary Nash discovers subtle changes in social and political awareness and describes the coming of the revolution through popular collective action and challenges to rule by custom, law and divine will. A reordering of political power required a new consciousness to challenge the model of social relations inherited from the past and defended by higher classes. While retaining all the main points of analysis and interpretation, the author has reduced the full complement of statistics, sources, and technical data contained in the original edition to serve the needs of general readers and undergraduates.
Download or read book The Conscious Mind written by Zoltan Torey and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-08-08 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the emergence of the 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.
Download or read book The Crucible of Creation written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paleontologist Simon Conway Morris provides a guided tour of the world's richest treasure trove of fossils--a fantastically rich deposit of bizarre and bewildering Cambrain fossils, located in Western Canada. 4 plates. 90 linecuts.
Download or read book The Conscious Mind written by Zoltan Torey and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-08-08 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An account of the emergence of the 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.
Download or read book Toward a Science of Consciousness III written by Stuart R. Hameroff and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can there be a science of consciousness? This issue has been the focus of three landmark conferences sponsored by the University of Arizona in Tucson. The first two conferences and books have become touchstones for the field. This volume presents a selection of invited papers from the third conference. Can there be a science of consciousness? This issue has been the focus of three landmark conferences sponsored by the University of Arizona in Tucson. The first two conferences and books have become touchstones for the field. This volume presents a selection of invited papers from the third conference. It showcases recent progress in this maturing field by researchers from philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, phenomenology, and physics. It is divided into nine sections: the explanatory gap, color, neural correlates of consciousness, vision, emotion, the evolution and function of consciousness, physical reality, the timing of conscious experience, and phenomenology. Each section is preceded by an overview and commentary by the editors. Contributors Dick J. Bierman, Jeffrey Burgdorf, A. Graham Cairns-Smith, William H. Calvin, Christian de Quincey, Frank H. Durgin, Vittorio Gallese, Elizabeth L. Glisky, Melvyn A. Goodale, Richard L. Gregory, Scott Hagan, C. Larry Hardin, C. A. Heywood, Masayuki Hirafuji, Nicholas Humphrey, Harry T. Hunt, Piet Hut, Alfred W. Kaszniak, Robert W. Kentridge, Stanley A. Klein, Charles D. Laughlin, Joseph Levine, Lianggang Lou, Shimon Malin, A. David Milner, Steven Mithen, Martine Nida-Rumelin, Stephen Palmer, Jaak Panksepp, Dean Radin, Steven Z. Rapcsak, Sheryl L. Reminger, Antti Revonsuo, Gregg H. Rosenberg, Yves Rossetti, Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Jonathan Shear, Galen Strawson, Robert Van Gulick, Frances Vaughan, Franz X. Vollenweider, B. Alan Wallace, Douglas F. Watt, Larry Weiskrantz, Fred A. Wolf, Kunio Yasue, Arthur Zajonc
Download or read book A Study in Consciousness written by Annie Besant and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Philosophy Neuroscience and Consciousness written by Rex Welshon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-09-17 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explaining consciousness is one of the last great unanswered scientific and philosophical problems. Immediately known, familiar and obvious, consciousness is also baffling, opaque and strange. This introduction to the problems posed by consciousness discusses the most important work of cognitive science, neurophysiology and philosophy of mind of the past thirty years and presents an up to date assessment of the issues and debates. The reader is first introduced to the way that consciousness has been thought about in the history of philosophy and psychology. The author then presents an informal and largely non-technical account of the properties of consciousness that are thought to be the most paradigmatic and problematic. Recent scientific work on consciousness, from neurophysiological studies of the brain and evolutionary studies of the development of consciousness to computational theories of the mind are then examined and the philosophical problems that these accounts raise are systematically introduced. The final chapters of the book consider more practical matters by addressing self-deception, neuroses, the unconscious and notions of the self, before concluding with an assessment of the future for psychology and the philosophy of mind.
Download or read book Who Said What written by Dale Carlson and published by Bick Publishing House. This book was released on 2003 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosophy and science team up to explain the working of the brain and how teens in particular should understand the secrets of the brain's functioning.
Download or read book The Nature of Consciousness written by Ned Block and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997-09-10 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended for anyone attempting to find their way through the large and confusingly interwoven philosophical literature on consciousness, this reader brings together most of the principal texts in philosophy (and a small set of related key works in neuropsychology) on consciousness through 1997, and includes some forthcoming articles. Its extensive coverage strikes a balance between seminal works of the past few decades and the leading edge of philosophical research on consciousness.As no other anthology currently does, The Nature of Consciousness provides a substantial introduction to the field, and imposes structure on a vast and complicated literature, with sections covering stream of consciousness, theoretical issues, consciousness and representation, the function of consciousness, subjectivity and the explanatory gap, the knowledge argument, qualia, and monitoring conceptions of consciousness. Of the 49 contributions, 18 are either new or have been adapted from a previous publication.
Download or read book The Way of the Crucible written by Robert Bartlett and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2008-04 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our first book, Real Alchemy, provides a glimpse into the general theory and practices surrounding the Art of Alchemy as handed down in the Western World. This second work delves more deeply into "the why of the how" behind laboratory alchemy and elaborates greater detail on some of the mineral works of Alchemy both ancient and modern. Herein you will find a wealth of information concerning the practical art and science of alchemy that makes this arcane subject accessible to the modern student.
Download or read book Pregnant Darkness written by Monika Wikman and published by Nicolas-Hays, Inc.. This book was released on 2005-01-28 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author, psychologist, and astrologer Monika Wikman has worked for decades with clients and their dream symbols and witnessed the presence of the divine hand at work in the psyche. In The Pregnant Darkness, Wikman shows readers that the best way to cope with their darkest hours is by fostering a connection to the deeper current of life, those mysteries that give life form and meaning. Wikman's analysis of dream material leads readers into a practical explanation of alchemical symbolism. Far from being a quaint, ancient practice, The Pregnant Darkness shows that alchemy is at work in contemporary, everyday life. Alchemical symbolism, properly understood, can be applied to unraveling the meaning of visions in meditation, active imagination, and dream work. Wikman shows how readers can participate in the divine energies to help miraculous changes occur in their lives. Wikman writes: "In Greek mythology, Pegasus, upon taking to the air, pushed hard with a back hoof and penetrated the earth. A spring rose up where his hoof dashed the earth, and in this hole . . . the muses reside. One of the roles of the "religious function" of which Jung speaks is to bring us toward that inner spring of the muses where something beyond ego resides, instructs, and inspires. Like a hole created from Pegasus' leaping foot, contact with this inner spring often entails a crack in our field of ordinary consciousness. In the inner world, the spring of living symbols and accompanying presences is the source of dreams and visions, as well as the fountain of inspiration at the heart of poetry, art, ritual, mythology, and even religion."
Download or read book Making of the Modern Mind written by Philip Hodgkiss and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Making of the Modern Mind traces the emergence of "consciousness" in social thought from the 17th Century to the 21st. Against the classical notions of consciousness and self, alternative agendas began to be developed in the 19th Century by figures as diverse as Marx and Nietzsche. The struggles between classical conceptions of consciousness and these alternatives--which promised more radical and emancipatory interpretations--continued into the 20th Century.From the start, the concept of "consciousness" connected with a range of other notions. Questions of the self and of identity were widely disputed in the Enlightenment whilst the 20th Century contributed new concerns, chiefly the philosophical issues of being and acting and the problematic status of reality for a theory of mind. Today, consciousness is viewed much more as a public and linguistic world rather than a private and mentalistic one.The Making of the Modern Mind explores the contemporary debates around consciousness and identity, crucially setting the analysis within its social and historical context. Written in a clear and engaging style, the book will be of interest to students in Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology.
Download or read book Theatrical Improvisation Consciousness and Cognition written by C. Drinko and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-04-05 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improvisation teachers have long known that the human mind could be trained to be effortlessly spontaneous and intuitive. Drinko explores what these improvisation teachers knew about improvisation's effects on consciousness and cognition and compares these theories to current findings in cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy.
Download or read book Mind written by and published by . This book was released on 1901 with total page 540 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
