The Big Questions: Mind

✍ Scribed by Blackburn, Simon; Restak, Richard M

• Publisher: Quercus
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Series: The Big Questions
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

'The Big Questions' series is designed to let renowned experts confront the 20 most fundamental and frequently asked questions of a major branch of science or philosophy.

In 'The Big Questions: Mind' the explanations behind the 'mysteries' of our unique minds - including how they differ from our brains and how they create our awareness - are explored.

Among the questions discussed are: How do brains come to exist? Is the mind more than the brain? What does it mean to be conscious? What is knowledge? Does the mind play tricks? What is the 'I' in our brain?

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✦ Table of Contents

Content: Introduction. Can We Have a Mind Without a Body? - Are we creatures of pure thought? How Do Brains Come to Exist? - The development of the human brain. Can We Build a Super-Brain? - Achieving the highest levels of brain performance. How Do We Make Sense of Sensation? - Seeing things as we are. What Does it Mean to be Conscious? - Problems of identity and awareness. What Makes the Human Brain Special? - Looking under the hood. Can Brains Communicate Without Words? - The secrets of body language. What is the 'I' in Our Brain? - The quintessential identity problem. Is Free Will an Illusion? - Does our brain already know what we're going to do? What is Thinking? - Putting our minds to work. What Does a Brain Do When it is Doing Nothing? - The pleasures and perils of mind wandering. Is it Possible to Think of Two Things at Once? - The dangers of multitasking and thought suppression. What is Knowledge? - What do we know and how do we know that we know it? How Do We Step Out of the Here and Now? - Processing the past and the future. Where Do Empathy and Altruism Come From? - Seeing ourselves in others. What is this Thing Called Love? - Addiction, pure sex, evolutionary necessity or a beautiful relationship? What Happens When We Get Angry? - Fury and the frontal lobes. Do Dreams Have Meaning? - Random noise or vital insight in to the unconscious? Does the Mind Play Tricks? - Illusion, reality and the mind. Are Machines Scrambling our Brains? - Thinking in new and different ways. Glossary. Index.

✦ Subjects

Philosophy of mind