A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness [Paperback]

This book is a tour-de-force on how human consciousness may have evolved. From the phantom pain experienced by people who have lost their limbs to the uncanny faculty of blindsight, Humphrey argues that raw sensations are central to all conscious states and that consciousness must have evolved, just like all other mental faculties, over time from our ancestors'bodily responses to pain and pleasure.
Humphrey is one of that growing band of scientists who beat literary folk at their own game -RICHARD DAWKINS
A wonderful bookbrilliant, unsettling, and beautifully written. Humphrey cuts bravely through the currents of contemporary thinking, opening up new vistas on old problems offering a feast of provocative ideas. -DANIEL DENNETTThis book is a tour-de-force on how human consciousness may have evolved. From the phantom pain experienced by people who have lost their limbs to the uncanny faculty of blindsight, Humphrey argues that raw sensations are central to all conscious states and that consciousness must have evolved, just like all other mental faculties, over time from our ancestors' bodily responses to pain and pleasure. 'Mind and Body.- Puzzling Work: An Aside About Language.- What Happened in History: The Inside Story.- The Double Province of the Senses.- What Do We See?.- Color is the Keyboard.- In the Realm of the Senses.- Shuttle Vision.- It Must Look Queer!.- New Arrangements.- Mind-Blindness and Blind-Mindness.- More About Blindsight.- A Fire In The Hand; A Dagger of the Mind.- He Thought He Saw An Elephant.- Here It Lies.- Here What Lies? A Chapter About Definition.- Five Characteristics in Search of A Theory.- The Problem of Ownership (A Tack to Starboard).- The Question Of Indexicals (A Tack to Port).- Plus CA Change....- A Little Mind Music.- Specific Nerve Energies?.- Smoke Without Fire.- Time Present.- Hurrah!.- Being and Nothingness.- 229.- 235.The relation of mind -- consciousness especially -- and body has puzzled sló,