The accidental mind
By: David J. Linden
Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9780674024786
Subjects: Brain -- Popular works; Brain -- Evolution; Neuropsychology
Genres: Popular works
Description: "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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-263) and index