Author: Denise D. Cummins
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780195110531
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
In The Evolution of Mind, outstanding figures on the cutting edge of evolutionary psychology follow clues provided by current neuroscientific evidence to illuminate many puzzling questions of human cognitive evolution. With contributions from psychologists, ethologists, anthropologists, and philosophers, the book offers a broad range of approaches to explore the mysteries of the mind's evolution - from investigating the biological functions of human cognition to drawing comparisons between human and animal cognitive abilities.

Author: Motoo Kimura
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811561656
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book, written by Motoo Kimura (1924–94), is a classic in evolutionary biology. In 1968, Kimura proposed the “neutral theory of molecular evolution”, which became the theoretical basis of modern evolutionary studies. After publishing his work in 1983 in the book “Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution”, Kimura wrote this book in 1988 for the general public. It was originally written in Japanese and is translated here for the first time. In the book, Kimura first summarizes the development of evolutionary theory since Lamarck and Darwin. He then shows how the search for mechanisms of evolution developed into population genetics and describes how the study of molecular evolution matured by taking in the fruits of molecular biology. Kimura proceeds to carefully explain his neutral evolution theory at the molecular level. Finally, he presents his view of the world from an evolutionary perspective. The book has long served as an in-depth introduction to evolutionary biology for students and young researchers in Japan. There has been remarkably rapid progress in the field of bioscience at the molecular level over the past 30 years. Nevertheless, the book remains an important contribution that laid the foundations for what followed in molecular evolutionary studies.

Author: David C. Geary
Publisher: Amer Psychological Assn
ISBN: 9781591471813
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
"Geary also explores a number of issues that are of interest in modern society, including how general intelligence relates to academic achievement, occupational status, and income."--BOOK JACKET.

Author: Ronald de Sousa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019518985X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
In this short and accessible book, Ronald de Sousa shows us that in order to understand what is truly important about our reasoning capacity, we need to change our thinking about what rationality actually is.

Author: William H. (Bill) Schulze
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1450057934
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
This is an autobiographical sketch of selected events, with emphasis on church memberships and experiences, which affected my religious philosophy that evolved into my present convictions that all major world religions and their underlying written documentation are the works of men, to some of whom divine inspiration is attributed; that their deities are either nonexistent fabrications of the authors, interpreters, and practitioners of their particular religions, or human beings who claim to be divine, or prophets of a deity or deities, or who were determined by their followers to be such; and some related essays.

Author: John F. Hoffecker
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023151848X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
In Landscape of the Mind, John F. Hoffecker explores the origin and growth of the human mind, drawing on archaeology, history, and the fossil record. He suggests that, as an indirect result of bipedal locomotion, early humans developed a feedback relationship among their hands, brains, and tools that evolved into the capacity to externalize thoughts in the form of shaped stone objects. When anatomically modern humans evolved a parallel capacity to externalize thoughts as symbolic language, individual brains within social groups became integrated into a "neocortical Internet," or super-brain, giving birth to the mind. Noting that archaeological traces of symbolism coincide with evidence of the ability to generate novel technology, Hoffecker contends that human creativity, as well as higher order consciousness, is a product of the superbrain. He equates the subsequent growth of the mind with human history, which began in Africa more than 50,000 years ago. As anatomically modern humans spread across the globe, adapting to a variety of climates and habitats, they redesigned themselves technologically and created alternative realities through tools, language, and art. Hoffecker connects the rise of civilization to a hierarchical reorganization of the super-brain, triggered by explosive population growth. Subsequent human history reflects to varying degrees the suppression of the mind's creative powers by the rigid hierarchies of nationstates and empires, constraining the further accumulation of knowledge. The modern world emerged after 1200 from the fragments of the Roman Empire, whose collapse had eliminated a central authority that could thwart innovation. Hoffecker concludes with speculation about the possibility of artificial intelligence and the consequences of a mind liberated from its organic antecedents to exist in an independent, nonbiological form.

Author: Russ Harris
Publisher: Exisle Publishing
ISBN: 1921966343
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
A guide to ACT: the revolutionary mindfulness-based program for reducing stress, overcoming fear, and finding fulfilment – now updated. International bestseller, 'The Happiness Trap', has been published in over thirty countries and twenty-two languages. NOW UPDATED. Popular ideas about happiness are misleading, inaccurate, and are directly contributing to our current epidemic of stress, anxiety and depression. And unfortunately, popular psychological approaches are making it even worse! In this easy-to-read, practical and empowering self-help book, Dr Russ Harries, reveals how millions of people are unwittingly caught in the 'The Happiness Trap', where the more they strive for happiness the more they suffer in the long term. He then provides an effective means to escape through the insights and techniques of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), a groundbreaking new approach based on mindfulness skills. By clarifying your values and developing mindfulness (a technique for living fully in the present moment), ACT helps you escape the happiness trap and find true satisfaction in life. Mindfulness skills are easy to learn and will rapidly and effectively help you to reduce stress, enhance performance, manage emotions, improve health, increase vitality, and generally change your life for the better. The book provides scientifically proven techniques to: reduce stress and worry; rise above fear, doubt and insecurity; handle painful thoughts and feelings far more effectively; break self-defeating habits; improve performance and find fulfilment in your work; build more satisfying relationships; and, create a rich, full and meaningful life.

Author: Gary Marcus
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780547238241
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
A New York University psychologist argues that the mind is a "kluge"-a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption-as he ponders the accidents of evolution that caused this structure and what we can do about it.

Author: Kathryn Applegate
Publisher: Monarch Books
ISBN: 0857217887
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Over two dozen Christian leaders describe how they changed their minds about evolution Perhaps no topic appears as potentially threatening to evangelicals as evolution. The very idea seems to exclude God from the creation the book of Genesis celebrates. Yet many evangelicals have come to accept the conclusions of science while still holding to a vigorous belief in God and the Bible. How did they make this journey? How did they come to embrace both evolution and faith? Here are stories from a community of people who love Jesus and honor the authority of the Bible, but who also agree with what science says about the cosmos, our planet and the life that so abundantly fills it. Among the contributors are Scientists such as: Francis Collins Deborah Haarsma Denis Lamoureux Theologians and philosophers such as: James K. A. Smith Amos Yong Oliver Crisp Biblical scholars such as: N. T. Wright Scot McKnight Tremper Longman III Pastors such as: John Ortberg Ken Fong Laura Truax

Author: Merlin Donald
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674253701
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
This bold and brilliant book asks the ultimate question of the life sciences: How did the human mind acquire its incomparable power? In seeking the answer, Merlin Donald traces the evolution of human culture and cognition from primitive apes to artificial intelligence, presenting an enterprising and original theory of how the human mind evolved from its presymbolic form.