Bright air, brilliant fire : on the matter of the mind

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Bright air, brilliant fire : on the matter of the mind

Gerald M. Edelman

BasicBooks, c1992

  • : pbk

Available at  / 33 libraries

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-266) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780465007646

Description

We are on the verge of a revolution in neuroscience as significant as the Galilean revolution in physics or the Darwinian revolution in biology. Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman takes issue with the many current cognitive and behavioural approaches to the brain that leave biology out of the picture, and argues that the workings of the brain more closely resemble the living ecology of a jungle than they do the activities of a computer. Some startling conclusions emerge from these ideas: individuality is necessarily at the very centre of what it means to have a mind, no creature is born value-free, and no physical theory of the universe can claim to be a "theory of everything" without including an account of how the brain gives rise to the mind. There is no greater scientific challenge than understanding the brain. Bright Air, Brilliant Fire is a book that provides a window on that understanding.

Table of Contents

Problems * Mind * Putting the Mind Back into Nature * The Matter of the Mind Origins * Putting Psychology on a Biological Basis * Morphology and Mind: Completing Darwins Program * Topobiology: Lessons from the Embryo * The Problems Reconsidered Proposals * The Sciences of Recognition * Neural Darwinism * Memory and Concepts: Building a Bridge to Consciousness * Consciousness: The Remembered Present * Language and Higher-Order Consciousness * Attention and the Unconscious * Layers and loops: A Summary Harmonies * A Graveyard of Isms: Philosophy and Its Claims * Memory and the Individual Soul: Against Silly Reductionism * Higher Products: Thoughts, Judgments, Emotions * Diseases of the Mind: The Reintegrated Self * Is It Possible to Construct a Conscious Artifact * Symmetry and Memory: On the Ultimate Origins of Mind * Epilogue
Volume

ISBN 9780465052455

Description

A nobel laureates revolutionary vision of how the mind originates in the brain. One of the worlds foremost brain scientists gives us a glimpse into the workings of the human brainthe most complex material object in the universe. He argues that biology will provide the key to understanding the brain and ultimately the mind. We are on the verge of a revolution in neuroscience as significant as the Galilean revolution in physics or the Darwinian revolution in biology. Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman takes issue with the many current cognitive and behavioral approaches to the brain that leave biology out of the picture, and argues that the workings of the brain more closely resemble the living ecology of a jungle than they do the activities of a computer. Some startling conclusions emerge from these ideas: individuality is necessarily at the very center of what it means to have a mind, no creature is born value-free, and no physical theory of the universe can claim to be a theory of everything without including an account of how the brain gives rise to the mind. There is no greater scientific challenge than understanding the brain. Bright Air, Brilliant Fire is a book that provides a window on that understanding.

Table of Contents

  • Problems
  • Mind
  • Putting the Mind Back into Nature
  • The Matter of the Mind
  • Origins
  • Putting Psychology on a Biological Basis
  • Morphology and Mind: Completing Darwins Program
  • Topobiology: Lessons from the Embryo
  • The Problems Reconsidered
  • Proposals
  • The Sciences of Recognition
  • Neural Darwinism
  • Memory and Concepts: Building a Bridge to Consciousness
  • Consciousness: The Remembered Present
  • Language and Higher-Order Consciousness
  • Attention and the Unconscious
  • Layers and loops: A Summary
  • Harmonies
  • A Graveyard of Isms: Philosophy and Its Claims
  • Memory and the Individual Soul: Against Silly Reductionism
  • Higher Products: Thoughts, Judgments, Emotions
  • Diseases of the Mind: The Reintegrated Self
  • Is It Possible to Construct a Conscious Artifact
  • Symmetry and Memory: On the Ultimate Origins of Mind
  • Epilogue.

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