Jean-Pierre Changeux is a world-famous neurobiologist. In an era of specialization, he is one of the rare scientists who has not only disregarded interdisciplinary boundaries, but in fact bridged them. Published originally in France, where it was a runaway bestseller, his Neuronal Man is the most wide-ranging and in-depth synthesis of our current knowledge about the human brain-a balance sheet of 20 years' worth of discoveries as revolutionary as those in atomic physics at the turn of the century or genetics in the fifties. More than a guided tour of the fabulous universe of the human brain, the book presents the author's radical, groundbreaking hypothesis currently shaking up scientific circles: that there is no "mind" in man, nothing psychic, only neurons, synapses, electricity, and chemistry. The human cerebral cortex alone (the "rind" of the brain whose evolution culminates in man) contains at least 30 billion neurons (nerve cells). As Changeux explains, these communicate with each other at the level of gaps call synapses, which are so numerous that "if one counted a thousand of them each second, between 3,000 and 30,000 years would pass before they had all been numbered. Changeux leads us through this complexity with clarity, elegance of style, wit, and rigor, and then, moving from this solid, factual base, allows us to see the reasoning behind his theory of the biology of the brain. Neither "reductionist" nor "holistic," that is, neither reducing the functioning of the whole to that of its elements, nor seeing a whole that more than the sum of its parts, this method is global, systematic. Each element of the human system contributes to its functioning as a whole, which, in turn, influences the characteristics and development of each element. The accent is on relations and interdependencies. At once historical and didactic, scientific and philosophical, witty and shrewd, the story he tells is an exciting one of territorial struggles, conflicts of schools, retrogressions, and breakthroughs. We explore a wealth of fact, theory, lore, and speculation, which sets into relief the development of our current knowledge of how the brain works. Neuronal Man, a brilliant and controversial book, allows us to reconquer our internal space on the basis of a new logic. It bridges the gap between the biological and the social, between body, mind, and soul. "Science writing of the best kind, clear, concise, scholarly, at times even poetic."--Library Journal ·"Written with great clarity, verve and grace, this detailed report...leads the reader carefully through the intricacies of an emerging science still in its infancy."--Publishers Weekly ·"Pivotal....What [Changeux] says in this book may have far-reaching effects for years to come."-Booklist ·"A revolutionary book.-L'Express ·"Neuronal Man is an event as well as a book....A thrilling exploration of the brain and the mechanisms that control our behavior."--Liberation

Neuronal Man: The Biology of Mind

Health, Fitness & Dieting

CHANGEUX, JEAN-PIERRE

Psychology & Counseling

Oxford University Press

In this fascinating and bold discussion, a renowned neurobiologist serves as guide to the most complex physical object in the living world: the human brain. Taking into account the newest brain research—morphological, physiological, chemical, genetic—and placing these findings in the context of psychology, philosophy, art, and literature, Changeux ventures into the unexplored territories where these diverse disciplines intersect.
Changeux's book draws on Plato's notion that the Good, the True, and the Beautiful are celestial essences or ideas, independent but so intertwined as to be inseparable. Placing these essences within the characteristic features of the human brain's neuronal organization, the author addresses unsolved questions in neuroscience today. With imagination and deep insight, Changeux illuminates the evolution of the brain and deciphers what new developments in neuroscience may portend for the future of humanity.

The Good, the True, and the Beautiful: A Neuronal Approach (An Editions Odile Jacob Book)

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Yale University Press

Interweaving history, reportage, anecdote, description, and philosophy, an eminent neurobiologist explains the structures and functions of neural anatomy and propounds a theory of the biological reality of mental life

NEURONAL MAN

Pantheon

In this wide-ranging book, one of the boldest thinkers in modern neuroscience confronts an ancient philosophical problem: can we know the world as it really is? 
 Drawing on provocative new findings about the psychophysiology of perception and judgment in both human and nonhuman primates, and also on the cultural history of science, Jean-Pierre Changeux makes a powerful case for the reality of scientific progress and argues that it forms the basis for a coherent and universal theory of human rights. On this view, belief in objective knowledge is not a mere ideological slogan or a naïve confusion; it is a characteristic feature of human cognition throughout evolution, and the scientific method its most sophisticated embodiment. Seeking to reconcile science and humanism, Changeux holds that the capacity to recognize truths that are independent of subjective personal experience constitutes the foundation of a human civil society.

The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge

Mental Health

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press

In this wide-ranging book, one of the boldest thinkers in modern neuroscience confronts an ancient philosophical problem: can we know the world as it really is?
Drawing on provocative new findings about the psychophysiology of perception and judgment in both human and nonhuman primates, and also on the cultural history of science, Jean-Pierre Changeux makes a powerful case for the reality of scientific progress and argues that it forms the basis for a coherent and universal theory of human rights. On this view, belief in objective knowledge is not a mere ideological slogan or a naïve confusion; it is a characteristic feature of human cognition throughout evolution, and the scientific method its most sophisticated embodiment. Seeking to reconcile science and humanism, Changeux holds that the capacity to recognize truths that are independent of subjective personal experience constitutes the foundation of a human civil society.

The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge (Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative)

Belknap Press

Do numbers and the other objects of mathematics enjoy a timeless existence independent of human minds, or are they the products of cerebral invention? Do we discover them, as Plato supposed and many others have believed since, or do we construct them? Does mathematics constitute a universal language that in principle would permit human beings to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations elsewhere in the universe, or is it merely an earthly language that owes its accidental existence to the peculiar evolution of neuronal networks in our brains? Does the physical world actually obey mathematical laws, or does it seem to conform to them simply because physicists have increasingly been able to make mathematical sense of it? Jean-Pierre Changeux, an internationally renowned neurobiologist, and Alain Connes, one of the most eminent living mathematicians, find themselves deeply divided by these questions.
 The problematic status of mathematical objects leads Changeux and Connes to the organization and function of the brain, the ways in which its embryonic and post-natal development influences the unfolding of mathematical reasoning and other kinds of thinking, and whether human intelligence can be simulated, modeled,--or actually reproduced-- by mechanical means. The two men go on to pose ethical questions, inquiring into the natural foundations of morality and the possibility that it may have a neural basis underlying its social manifestations. This vivid record of profound disagreement and, at the same time, sincere search for mutual understanding, follows in the tradition of Poincaré, Hadamard, and von Neumann in probing the limits of human experience and intellectual possibility. Why order should exist in the world at all, and why it should be comprehensible to human beings, is the question that lies at the heart of these remarkable dialogues.

Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics

Connes, Alain

Princeton University Press

Will understanding our brains help us to know our minds? Or is there an unbridgeable distance between the work of neuroscience and the workings of human consciousness? In a remarkable exchange between neuroscientist Jean-Pierre Changeux and philosopher Paul Ricoeur, this book explores the vexed territory between these divergent approaches--and comes to a deeper, more complex perspective on human nature.
 Ranging across diverse traditions, from phrenology to PET scans and from Spinoza to Charles Taylor, What Makes Us Think? revolves around a central issue: the relation between the facts (or "what is") of science and the prescriptions (or "what ought to be") of ethics. Changeux and Ricoeur ask: Will neuroscientific knowledge influence our moral conduct? Is a naturally based ethics possible? Pursuing these questions, they attack key topics at the intersection of philosophy and neuroscience: What are the relations between brain states and psychological experience? Between language and truth? Memory and culture? Behavior and action? What is a mental representation? How does a sign relate to what it signifies? How might subjective experience be constructed rather than discovered? And can biological or cultural evolution be considered progressive? Throughout, Changeux and Ricoeur provide unprecedented insight into what neuroscience can--and cannot--tell us about the nature of human experience.
 Changeux and Ricoeur bring an unusual depth of engagement and breadth of knowledge to each other's subject. In doing so, they make two often hostile disciplines speak to one another in surprising and instructive ways--and speak with all the subtlety and passion of conversation at its very best.

What Makes Us Think? A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain

Ricœur, Paul

Over the past thirty-five years, there has been an explosive increase in scientists' ability to explain the structure and functioning of the human brain. While psychology has advanced our understanding of human behavior, various other sciences, such as anatomy, physiology, and biology, have determined the critical importance of synapses and, through the use of advanced technology, made it possible actually to see brain cells at work within the skull's walls. Here Jean-Pierre Changeux elucidates our current knowledge of the human brain, taking an interdisciplinary approach and explaining in layman's terms the complex theories and scientific breakthroughs that have significantly improved our understanding in the twentieth century.

Neuronal Man

What Makes Us Think?: A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by CHANGEUX, JEAN-PIERRE. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by CHANGEUX, JEAN-PIERRE

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by CHANGEUX, JEAN-PIERRE. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Neuronal Man: The Biology of Mind

The Good, the True, and the Beautiful: A Neuronal Approach (An Editions Odile Jacob Book)

NEURONAL MAN

The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge

The Physiology of Truth: Neuroscience and Human Knowledge (Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative)

Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics

What Makes Us Think? A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain

Neuronal Man

Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics

What Makes Us Think?: A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain