Table of Contents

Problems * Mind * Putting the Mind Back into Nature * The Matter of the Mind Origins * Putting Psychology on a Biological Basis * Morphology and Mind: Completing Darwins Program * Topobiology: Lessons from the Embryo * The Problems Reconsidered Proposals * The Sciences of Recognition * Neural Darwinism * Memory and Concepts: Building a Bridge to Consciousness * Consciousness: The Remembered Present * Language and Higher-Order Consciousness * Attention and the Unconscious * Layers and loops: A Summary Harmonies * A Graveyard of Isms: Philosophy and Its Claims * Memory and the Individual Soul: Against Silly Reductionism * Higher Products: Thoughts, Judgments, Emotions * Diseases of the Mind: The Reintegrated Self * Is It Possible to Construct a Conscious Artifact * Symmetry and Memory: On the Ultimate Origins of Mind * Epilogue

About the Author

Gerald M. Edelman is director of the Neurosciences Institute and chairman of the Department of Neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute. He received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1972. He is also the author of Bright Air, Brilliant Fire Tobiology and The Remembered Present.

Reviews

In this challenging, exhilarating leap by a disciplined and original mind, Nobel Prize-winner Edelman (medicine, 1972) throws a neurobiological line between two ships--mind and matter--in the stormiest of scientific seas. In his defense of the biological component of mind, Edelman ( The Remembered Pres ent ) disposes of cognitive and behavioral theories of consciousness. To take up the slack, he extends current developments in brain neuroscience well into speculation. He is far too modest in stating that his goal is ``to dispel the notion that the mind can be understood in the absence of biology,'' for the book is a near-kinetic series of critiques and proposals to connect physics and psychology. The ``Harmonies'' section draws on other disciplines--philosophy, linguistics and psychiatry, among others--to entwine these tendrils of thought into a ``unified theory'' of mind. Illustrations not seen by PW . Natural Science Book Club selection. (Apr . )

Edelman, Nobel laureate and director of the Neurosciences Institute, is the author of three previous books on the biology of the brain. His latest book advances the theory that the mind has arisen through evolutionary morphology. According to Edelman, the mind is not a kind of computer but a product of the biological forms that have developed through natural selection. To support his theory, Edelman offers a mini-course in modern molecular biology and development. By the author's own admission, this is ``strenuous'' reading, complete with ``strange vocabulary.'' Nevertheless, Edelman presents his theory with enthusiasm and a genuine desire to discover the origins of the mind. Readers well-grounded in physics, biology, and philosophy will find his ideas extremely challenging. Primarily for academic libraries.-- Laurie Bartolini, Lincoln Lib., Springfield, Ill.