From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Other Practices, Atheism, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Evolution, Philosophy, Mind & Body
Cover of the book From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds by Daniel C. Dennett, W. W. Norton & Company
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Author: Daniel C. Dennett ISBN: 9780393242089
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: February 7, 2017
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Daniel C. Dennett
ISBN: 9780393242089
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: February 7, 2017
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

“[The] best scientific-philosophical approach to understanding how consciousness evolved.… A wonderful book that will shape and drive thinking for years to come.”—Shane O’Mara, Times Higher Education

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“[The] best scientific-philosophical approach to understanding how consciousness evolved.… A wonderful book that will shape and drive thinking for years to come.”—Shane O’Mara, Times Higher Education

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.

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