- Paperback: 222 pages
- Publisher: University of California Press; New Ed edition (3 Oct 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0520224868
- ISBN-13: 978-0520224865
- Product Dimensions: 2 x 1.3 x 0.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,256,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The Mind's Past
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Product Description
Review
"Working scientists who take the time to explain to the general reader what is happening in their field do an invaluable service to science and to the the life of the intellect. In the past year, we have benefitted from two notable efforts of this kind. First came Steven Pinker's "How the Mind Works"--lengthy but beautifully written--and now this much shorter breezily written book by Michael Gazzaniga, a leading researcher and influential editor in cognitive neuroscience."--C.R. Gallistel, "American Scientist"
Product Description
Why does the human brain insist on interpreting the world and constructing a narrative? In this ground-breaking work, Michael S. Gazzaniga, one of the world's foremost cognitive neuroscientists, shows how our mind and brain accomplish the amazing feat of constructing our past - a process clearly fraught with errors of perception, memory, and judgment. By showing that the specific systems built into our brain do their work automatically and largely outside of our conscious awareness, Gazzaniga calls into question our everyday notions of self and reality. The implications of his ideas reach deeply into the nature of perception and memory, the profundity of human instinct, and the ways we construct who we are and how we fit into the world around us. Over the past thirty years, the mind sciences have developed a picture not only of how our brains are built but also of what they were built to do. The emerging picture is wonderfully clear and pointed, underlining William James' notion that humans have far more instincts than other animals. Every baby is born with circuits that compute information enabling it to function in the physical world. Even what helps us to establish our understanding of social relations may have grown out of perceptual laws delivered to an infant's brain. Indeed, the ability to transmit culture - an act that is only part of the human repertoire - may stem from our many automatic and unique perceptual-motor processes that give rise to mental capacities such as belief and culture. Gazzaniga explains how the mind interprets data the brain has already processed, making 'us' the last to know. He shows how what 'we' see is frequently an illusion and not at all what our brain is perceiving. False memories become a part of our experience; autobiography is fiction. In exploring how the brain enables the mind, Gazzaniga points us toward one of the greatest mysteries of human evolution: how we become who we are.
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First Sentence
Well, we do know about the fiction of our lives-and we should want to know. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Well, we do know about the fiction of our lives-and we should want to know. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This lightly told, but hardly frivolous, study of the mind/brain refutes many long-held notions of what comprises the conscious mind. Gazzinga's approach is an attempt to inform us all of the real status of "self." He contends the "self" - hence, "free will" is a conceit. We pretend to have consciousness through our desire to establish identity, but the brain has its own, hidden, mechanisms of which we are only now becoming aware. He stresses the evolutionary roots of our minds, roots which may not compel behaviour, but certainly drive it with forces we fail to perceive readily. It's an amazingly complete work in spite of its brevity, rewarding to anyone opening its pages.
Gazzaniga is a clinical researcher, not a field worker. This doesn't impede his stressing an evolutionary development for how our minds work. Gazzaniga posits an "interpreter" as residing within our left brains. The distinctive roles of the left and right halves of the brain have been the subject of intensive research during the past years, but his assessment has some novelty. It is rather more than the classical "Cartesian Theatre" which has held sway in the minds of many psychologists and philosophers over the years. Gazzaniga's "interpreter" outperforms the role of "observer" postulated by Descartes. It has moved from Descartes' pineal gland to the left cortex. In Gazzaniga's view, the "interpreter" has a more active role, even powered to stimulate activity in sensory areas, previously thought to be wholly reactive. This device is rooted in our animal ancestors, living in a dangerous environment, needing to predict events for survival and reproduction. We have progressed beyond those roots, but the function has had long career, according to Gazzaniga. He stresses that we must learn more about its abilities and operations.
His use of sources is awkward. While utilizing the work of numerous researchers in his account, his attributions are hazy. The appended notes are collected by chapters, but relating the list to the text is difficult. Countless workers noted in the text fail to appear in the notes. We have only Gazzaniga's assurances that his references are valid. While his approach makes for easy readability, one's own "interpreter" sits uncomfortable at these omissions. Many well-known figures in consciousness studies are omitted. He builds a superb case, but it seems to rest on a shaky foundation. Still, his assertions need response and it will be fascinating to see who answers his contentions. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Format:Paperback
This is a very interesting little book. Although the subject is the complex field of neuroscience, I read it in just one day - Michael Gazzaniga's style is so accessible.
Gazzaniga appears to court controversy with his approach. He starts by suggesting the demise of psychology even as he shows that it has birthed other exciting fields of study. But the main thesis of the book makes the boldest claims - about the purpose of the human brain (to aid sexual reproduction); the origins of the human brain (it has obviously evolved, but at birth each individual's brain is pretty much pre-built - there is no major rewiring during infancy etc. Thus the suggestion that reading to babies helps the development of their brains is not scientific); memory is not accurate (and thus autobiographies are works of fiction!); our brain (and body) has usually made its decision regarding an impulse before our conscious mind becomes aware of the impulse; the narrator in our head (specifically, in our left-brain) is continuously interpreting our life's experiences to us even when the experiences cannot possibly make any sense; etc etc.
It is a great book to whet one's appetite for the curiousities of the human mind. It does not go into great depth, being a small book, and it will probably leave you wanting to find out more. This may be 'pop' neuroscience, but Gazzaniga is an authority in the field who definitely knows what he is talking about.
Gazzaniga appears to court controversy with his approach. He starts by suggesting the demise of psychology even as he shows that it has birthed other exciting fields of study. But the main thesis of the book makes the boldest claims - about the purpose of the human brain (to aid sexual reproduction); the origins of the human brain (it has obviously evolved, but at birth each individual's brain is pretty much pre-built - there is no major rewiring during infancy etc. Thus the suggestion that reading to babies helps the development of their brains is not scientific); memory is not accurate (and thus autobiographies are works of fiction!); our brain (and body) has usually made its decision regarding an impulse before our conscious mind becomes aware of the impulse; the narrator in our head (specifically, in our left-brain) is continuously interpreting our life's experiences to us even when the experiences cannot possibly make any sense; etc etc.
It is a great book to whet one's appetite for the curiousities of the human mind. It does not go into great depth, being a small book, and it will probably leave you wanting to find out more. This may be 'pop' neuroscience, but Gazzaniga is an authority in the field who definitely knows what he is talking about.
Format:Paperback
One of the other reviewers is right to state about this book that you either are into the new wave of reductionism which surrounds the cognitive sciences or this is not the book for you. Similarly, if you still believe that psychoanalytic arguments and recalled memories, for example, amount to objective evidence in courts to convict anyone, you may well stay away from Gazzaniga's captivating arguments (as well as from courts). I found the book entertaining and (obviously) in keeping with Pinker's ones. Some of the arguments could perhaps have been deepened further and the author seems to indulge sometimes on the philosophical consequences of his reductionist approach. In sum, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves challenging readings.
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