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Book Cover
E-book
Author Linden, David J., 1961- author.

Title The accidental mind / David J. Linden
Published Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2007

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Description 1 online resource (276 pages) : illustrations
Contents Prologue : Brain, explained -- The inelegant design of the brain -- Building a brain with yesterday's parts -- Some assembly required -- Sensation and emotion -- Learning, memory, and human individuality -- Love and sex -- Sleeping and dreaming -- The religious impulse -- The unintelligent design of the brain -- Epilogue : That middle thing
Summary "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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-263) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Brain -- Popular works
Brain -- Evolution.
Neuropsychology.
Evolution (Biology)
Brain -- physiology
Biological Evolution
Neuropsychology
evolution.
MEDICAL -- Neuroscience.
PSYCHOLOGY -- Neuropsychology.
Evolution (Biology)
Brain
Brain -- Evolution
Neuropsychology
Brain.
Neuropsychology.
Genre/Form Popular works
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2006047905
ISBN 9780674076594
0674076591