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The accidental mind / David J. Linden.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007.Description: 1 online resource (276 pages) : illustrationsContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9780674076594
  • 0674076591
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Additional physical formats: Print version:: Accidental mind.DDC classification:
  • 612.8/2 22
LOC classification:
  • QP376 .L577 2007eb
NLM classification:
  • 2007 D-905
  • WL 300
Online resources:
Contents:
Prologue : Brain, explained -- The inelegant design of the brain -- Building a brain with yesterday's parts -- Some assembly required -- Sensation and emotion -- Learning, memory, and human individuality -- Love and sex -- Sleeping and dreaming -- The religious impulse -- The unintelligent design of the brain -- Epilogue : That middle thing.
Summary: "A guide to the strange and often illogal world of neural function, 'The accidendal mind' shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible : our long childhoods, our extensnsive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are."--Jacket
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
eBook eBook e-Library EBSCO Medical Available
Total holds: 0

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-263) and index.

Prologue : Brain, explained -- The inelegant design of the brain -- Building a brain with yesterday's parts -- Some assembly required -- Sensation and emotion -- Learning, memory, and human individuality -- Love and sex -- Sleeping and dreaming -- The religious impulse -- The unintelligent design of the brain -- Epilogue : That middle thing.

"A guide to the strange and often illogal world of neural function, 'The accidendal mind' shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible : our long childhoods, our extensnsive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are."--Jacket

Print version record.

WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 650

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