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Origins of mind
Abstract
The big question of how and why mindedness evolved necessitates collaborative, multidisciplinary investigation. Biosemiotics provides a new conceptual space that attracts a multitude of thinkers in the biological and cognitive sciences and the humanities who recognize continuity in the biosphere from the simplest to the most complex organisms, and who are united in the project of trying to account for even language and human consciousness in this comprehensive picture of life. What philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists can contribute to the growing interdiscipline are insights into how the biosemiotic weltanschauung applies to complex organisms like humans where such signs and sign processes constitute human society and culture. The purpose of this volume is to gather together a sampling of contemporary thinking on when, why, and how mindedness evolved in the natural world from researchers working in the biological, cognitive, and medical sciences. The question of the origin of mind is no longer the exclusive domain of philosophers; it has, in recent decades, become a respectable question for research scientists to work on as well. The volume"s contents are pluralistic. One element that most of the chapters in the volume have in common is in their adherence to the principle that the phenomenon of mindedness, including the peculiarities of human mindedness, is a biological phenomenon. Fully represented in this volume are thoughts, ideas, and theories that contribute to our naturalistic understanding of mindedness that address its biological origins and evolutionary development. The volume is divided into five sections devoted to the sub-topics of: biosemiotics theories of mindedness, the evolution of mental representation in humans, the evolution of various aspects of consciousness, problems in philosophy of mind, and simulation approaches to understanding human intelligence.
Details | Table of Contents
exploring the origins of mindedness in nature
pp.1-17
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_1the biological roots of human consciousness, culture and history
pp.53-84
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_3a new foundation for a transdisciplinary theory of consciousness, cognition, meaning and communication
pp.97-126
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_5pp.129-142
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_6pp.143-159
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_7teleofunction, etiology, and structural preservation
pp.161-185
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_8from internal representation of action to symbolic processes
pp.187-199
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_9an embodied, developmental approach
pp.203-224
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_10the very idea!
pp.225-242
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_11which came first?
pp.243-258
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_12evolutionary answers to Chalmers' hard problem
pp.259-269
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_13pp.273-287
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_14away from chomskian saltationism and towards a naturally gradual account of mindfulness
pp.289-299
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_15the origin of mind and the problem of biological memory storage
pp.327-339
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_17pp.361-381
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5_19Publication details
Publisher: Springer
Place: Dordrecht
Year: 2013
Pages: 419
ISBN (hardback): 978-94-007-5418-8
ISBN (digital): 978-94-007-5419-5
Full citation:
Swan Liz (2013) Origins of mind. Dordrecht, Springer.