The primordial emotions : the dawning of consciousness
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The primordial emotions : the dawning of consciousness
Oxford University Press, 2005
- : hbk
- Other Title
-
Les Emotions primordiales et l'éveil de la conscience
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
French ed. published as: Les Emotions primordiales et l'éveil de la conscience
Description and Table of Contents
Description
To understand what is happening in the brain in the moment you decide, at will, to summon to consciousness a passage of Mozart's music, or decide to take a deep breath, is like trying to "catch a phantom by the tail". Consciousness remains that most elusive of all human phenomena - one so mysterious, one that even our highly developed knowledge of brain function can only partly explain. This book is unique in tracing the origins of consciousness. It takes the
investigation back many years in an attempt to uncover just how consciousness might have first emerged.
Consciousness did not develop suddenly in humans - it evolved gradually. In 'The Primordial Emotions', Derek Denton, a world renowned expert on animal instinct and a leader in integrative physiology, investigates the evolution of consciousness. Central to the book is the idea that the primal emotions - elements of instinctive behaviour - were the first dawning of consciousness. Throughout he examines instinctive behaviours, such as hunger for air, hunger for minerals, thirst, and pain, arguing
that the emotions elicited from these behaviours and desire for gratification culminated in the first conscious states. To develop the theory he looks at behaviour at different levels of the evolutionary tree, for example of octopuses, fish, snakes, birds, and elephants. Coupled with findings from
neuroimaging studies, and the viewpoints on consciousness from some of the key figures in philosophy and neuroscience, the book presents an accessible and groundbreaking new look at the problem of consciousness.
Table of Contents
- PART I - THE HYPOTHESIS
- 1. Introduction: the idea and context
- 2. The definition of consciousness and self-awareness
- 3. What some distinguished scientists have proposed on the nature of consciousness: John Searle, HOmer Smith, Vernon Mountcastle and Roger Sperry
- 4. Consciousness in animals
- 5. The appetite for salt and the mind - intention in salt mining elephants
- PART II - EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS
- 6. The phylogenetic tree
- 7. An interoceptor driven theory of origin of primary consciousness
- 8. The physiology of the primordial emotion of thirst
- 9. The neuroimaging of thirst by PET (Positron Emission Tomography)
- 10. Neuroimaging of other primordial emotions and also the second level distance receptor evoked emotions
- PART III - HIGHER COGNITION AND EMOTION
- 11. Anatomical structure and physiological functions subserving higher order consciousness
- 12. The biology of emotion
by "Nielsen BookData"