From the big bang to the human predicament
Subtitle: outline of an ultimate evolutionary synthesis
By: by Nikolai Eberhardt.
Publisher: Pentland Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Raleigh, N.C., U.S.A
Language: eng
Number of pages: 303
Subjects: Evolution.; Ontology.; Cosmology.; Neurophysiology.; Neuropsychology.; Religion.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [304]-[319]).
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction x; title: PART I: THE NATURAL FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE; title: 1. Cosmology as Self-Organization 2; title: Or: On The Physics of Life; title: Nature Emerges; title: Evolution by Natural Selection; title: Emergent Levels in Darwinian Evolution; title: Emergence as a Scientific Concept; title: The Role of Classical Physics; title: On Freedom of Choice; title: 2. Biological Evolution as Knowledge Gathering 22; title: Or: The Roots of Cognition; title: The Cell-Principal Machinery of Life; title: The Origin of Life, Lives of a Cell, and Cellular Automata; title: Philosophical Insert 1: Metaphysical Musings; title: Multicellular Organisms and the Need for Communication and Control; title: Neurons; title: Simple Neural Systems and Their Behavior; title: A First Look at Ethology; title: From Motor Learning to Innate Curiosity; title: 3. The Emotions of Being 51; title: Or: The Roots of Will; title: The Four Types of Aggression; title: The Taming of Aggression; title: Aggression in Humans; title: The Rituals of Bonding; title: The Similarity Bond and Beyond; title: 4. The Primate Mind 65; title: The Uneasy Society of Baboons; title: Our Cousins, the Chimpanzees; title: Chimpanzee Wars; title: The Moral Imperative; title: The Origin of Thought and Language; title: Philosophical Insert 2: Conclusions for the Theory of Knowledge; title: 5. THE BRAIN AND ITS EVOLUTION 99; title: Preface to Brain; title: Self-Organized Intelligence in Artificial Neural Networks; title: The Brain's Architecture and Evolution; title: Cortical Localization and the Basic Dualism; title: Intelligent Cortical Systems; title: Limbic System and the Frontal Lobe; title: The Networks of Consciousness; title: Philosophical Insert 3: The So-Called Problem of Consciousness; title: 6. From Neuroscience to Psychology 152; title: Jean Piaget and Self-Adaptation of the Neocortex; title: Dreams and Self-Adaptation of the Neocortex; title: The Central Interpreter-Storyteller at Work; title: C. G. Jung's Psychology and the Neurological Model; title: PART II: BEYOND HUMAN NATURE; title: Preface to Part II 179; title: 7. Neurological Dualism in Cultural Evolution 181; title: Cultural Versus Genetic Evolution; title: In the Garden of Eden; title: The Fall From Grace and the Ego System; title: Philosophical Insert 4: Evolutionary Epistemology Revisited; title: 8. From Religion to Reason 205; title: The Origin of Religion in the Neurological Dualism; title: Shamanism-The Earliest Religion; title: The Four Ways of Agriculturists; title: Early Syntheses; title: The Ego System Comes of Age; title: Christianity-The Blessed Illusion; title: The Quest Fulfilled?; title: 9. The Pains of Success and Beyond 250; title: An Unexpected Constraint: The World Ecosystem; title: The Irresponsible Childhood of Humanity; title: Industrial Revolution-Adolescent Prelude to the Future; title: Catastrophe or Smooth Transition?; title: Conclusions on Political Theory; title: Epilogue 280; title: Vignette 1-Cell Biology 284; title: Vignette 2-Natural Selection 293; title: Vignette 3-Artificial Neural Networks 296; title: Literature Cited 304.