Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of ConsciousnessHow does the firing of neurons give rise to subjective sensations, thoughts, and emotions? How can the disparate domains of mind and body be reconciled? The quest for a scientifically based understanding of consciousness has attracted study and speculation across the ages. In this direct and non-technical discussion of consciousness, Dr. Gerald M. Edelman draws on a lifetime of scientific inquiry into the workings of the brain to formulate answers to the mind-body questions that intrigue every thinking person.Concise and understandable, the book explains pertinent findings of modern neuroscience and describes how consciousness arises in complex brains. Edelman explores the relation of consciousness to causation, to evolution, to the development of the self, and to the origins of feelings, learning, and memory. His analysis of the brain activities underlying consciousness is based on recent remarkable advances in biochemistry, immunology, medical imaging, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, yet the implications of his book extend farther—beyond the worlds of science and medicine into virtually every area of human inquiry. |
Contents
The Mind of Man Completing Darwins Program | 1 |
Consciousness The Remembered Present | 4 |
Elements of the Brain | 14 |
Neural Darwinism A Global Brain Theory | 32 |
The Mechanisms of Consciousness | 48 |
Wider Than the Sky Qualia Unity and Complexity | 60 |
Consciousness and Causation The Phenomenal Transform | 76 |
The Conscious and the Nonconscious Automaticity and Attention | 87 |
HigherOrder Consciousness and Representation | 97 |
Theory and the Properties of Consciousness | 113 |
Identity The Self Mortality and Value | 131 |
Mind and Body Some Consequences | 140 |
Glossary | 149 |
| 181 | |
| 187 | |
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Common terms and phrases
ability animal anosognosia arise attention axons basal ganglia binding problem body brainstem causal cells cerebellum cerebral cortex changes circuits complex system connections conscious experience conscious scene CONSCIOUSNESS AND CAUSATION construct differentiated discriminations dynamic core Edelman entailed environment episodic memory evolution example extended TNGS give rise global brain global mappings globus pallidus GLOSSARY higher-order consciousness hippocampus individual inhibitory input integrated interac loops magnetoencephalography MECHANISMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS memory systems mental modalities modulated motor movement nervous system ness neural activity neural correlates NEURAL DARWINISM neuronal groups neurotransmitter nonconscious notion nuclei output pathways patterns perceptual categorization phenomenal transform postsynaptic primary consciousness PROPERTIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS qualia qualia space reentrant reentrant interactions reentry regions remembered present representation responses result sciousness sensory signals structure subcortical synaptic strength term thalamocortical system thalamus THEORY AND PROPERTIES theory of consciousness tion underlying unitary value systems value-category memory variation various visual yield