Brief History of the Mind From Apes to Intellect and Beyond

Name: Brief History of the Mind From Apes to Intellect and Beyond
Price: 6.11 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780195182484

ISBN-10: 0195182480

ISBN-13: 9780195182484

Edition: N/A

Authors: William H. Calvin

List price: $26.99

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This book looks back at the simpler versions of mental life in apes, Neanderthals, and our ancestors, back before our burst of creativity started 50,000 years ago. When you can't think about the future in much detail, you are trapped in a here-and-now existence with no "What if?" and "Why me?" William H. Calvin takes stock of what we have now and then explains why we are nearing a crossroads, where mind shifts gears again. The mind's big bang came long after our brain size stopped enlarging. Calvin suggests that the development of long sentences--what modern children do in their third year--was the most likely trigger. To keep a half-dozen concepts from blending together like a summer…

Book details

List price: $26.99
Publisher: Oxford University Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 10/8/2005
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 240
Size: 5.55" wide x 8.23" long x 0.63" tall
Weight: 0.594
Language: English

William H. Calvin is Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle. His books include The Cerebral Code (MIT Press, 1996).



Preface


Some Stage-setting Perspective



When Chimpanzees Think: The way we were, 7 million years ago?



Upright Posture but Ape-sized Brains: In the woodland between forest and savanna



Triple Startups about 2.5 Million Years Ago: Flickering climate, toolmaking, and bigger brains



Homo erectus Ate Well: Adding more meat to the diet fueled the first Out of Africa



The Second Brain Boom: What kicked in, about 750,000 years ago?



Neanderthals and Our Pre-sapiens Ancestors: Two-stage toolmaking and what it says about thought



Homo sapiens without the Modern Mind: The big brain but not much to show for it



Structured Thought Finally Appears: The curb-cut principle and emerging higher intellectual function



From Africa to Everywhere: Was the still-full-of-bugs prototype what spread around the world?



How Creativity Manages the Mixups: Higher intellectual function and the search for coherence



Civilizing Ourselves: From planting to writing to mind medicine



What's Sudden About the Mind's Big Bang?: The moderns somehow got their act together



Imagining the House of Cards: Inventing new levels of organization on the fly



The Future of the Augmented Mind: A combustible mixture of ignorance and power?


Afterword


Recommended Reading


Notes