The mind-body problems are widely seen as the great remaining challenge to science and philosophy. Why and how did matter evolve to take on the quality of mind? The author takes the reader to the very edges of current knowledge and back to the beginning of time, before "mind" existed, and in doing so constructs a history of consciousness. Nicholas Humphrey's previous books include "Four Minutes to Midnight", "Consciousness Regained" and "The Inner Eye".

A History of the Mind

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Humphrey, Nicholas

Psychology & Counseling

Perennial

Inner Eye

RANDOM HOUSE UK

Essays discuss the evolution of consciousness, self-knowledge, aesthetics, religious ecstasy, ghosts, and dreams

Consciousness regained: Chapters in the development of mind

History

Americas

Oxford University Press

Nicholas Humphrey's writings about the evolution of the mind have done much to set the agenda for contemporary psychology. Here, in a series of riveting essays, he invites us to 'take another look' at a variety of the central and not-so-central issues: the evolution of consciousness, the nature of the self, multiple personality disorder, the placebo effect, cave art, religious miracles, medieval animal trials, the seductions of dictatorship, and much more.

The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution

Oxford University Press, U.S.A.

Where does consciousness come from? What is it? Where is it taking us? In 1971 Nicholas Humphrey spent three months at Dian Fossey's gorilla research centre in Rwanda. It was there, among the mountain gorillas that he began to focus on the philosphical and scientific puzzle that has fascinated him ever since: the problem of how a human being or animal can know what it is like to be itself. The Inner Eye describes where these original speculations led: to Humphrey's now celebrated theories of the 'social function of intellect' and of human beings as natural born 'mind-readers'. Easy to read, adorned with Mel Calman's brilliant illustrations, passionately argued, yet never less than scientifically profound, this book remains the best introduction to new thinking about 'theory of mind' and its implication for human social life.

The Inner Eye: Social Intelligence in Evolution

Mental Health

Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness

The story of a quest to uncover the evolutionary history of consciousness from one of the world's leading theoretical psychologists. We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But is it only humans who feel this way? Do other animals? Will future machines? Weaving together intellectual adventure and cutting-edge science, Nicholas Humphrey describes in Sentience his quest for answers: from his discovery of blindsight in monkeys and his pioneering work on social intelligence to breakthroughs in the philosophy of mind. The goal is to solve the hard problem: to explain the wondrous, eerie fact of "phenomenal consciousness"--the redness of a poppy, the sweetness of honey, the pain of a bee sting. What does this magical dimension of experience amount to? What is it for? And why has it evolved? Humphrey presents here his new solution. He proposes that phenomenal consciousness, far from being primitive, is a relatively late and sophisticated evolutionary development. The implications for the existence of sentience in nonhuman animals are startling and provocative.

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

The MIT Press

This book is a tour-de-force on how human consciousness may have evolved. From the "phantom pain" experienced by people who have lost their limbs to the uncanny faculty of "blindsight" Humphrey argues that raw sensations are central to all conscious states and that consciousness must have evolved, just like all other mental faculties, over time from our ancestors' bodily responses to pain and pleasure. "Humphrey is one of that growing band of scientists who beat literary folk at their own game" -RICHARD DAWKINS "A wonderful bookbrilliant, unsettling, and beautifully written. Humphrey cuts bravely through the currents of contemporary thinking, opening up new vistas on old problems offering a feast of provocative ideas" -DANIEL DENNETT

A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

Copernicus

"Elegant and literate" -THE TIMES OF LONDON "The kind of book that both skeptics and believers would do well to read"- SKEPTICAL INQUIRER "An urbane, original, convincing rebuttal of paranormal and supernatural notions" -NEW SCIENTIST "A lively, entertaining book... Humphrey has set himself a larger task than simply explaining why people believe in parapsychology: the task of explaining why it is irrational to believe in it."-NATURE

Leaps of Faith: Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation

Science & Math

Examines the evidence for paranormal phenomena to dismiss the idea that they really exist

Leaps Of Faith: Science, Miracles, And The Search For Supernatural Consolation

Basic Books

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

Books by Humphrey, Nicholas

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

A History of the Mind

Inner Eye

Consciousness regained: Chapters in the development of mind

The Mind Made Flesh: Essays from the Frontiers of Psychology and Evolution

The Inner Eye: Social Intelligence in Evolution

Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness

Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness

A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

Leaps of Faith: Science, Miracles, and the Search for Supernatural Consolation

Leaps Of Faith: Science, Miracles, And The Search For Supernatural Consolation