The Evolution of Consciousness

The Evolution of Consciousness PDF Author: Bjørn Grinde
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319436856
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book gives the reader an understanding of what consciousness is about, and of how to make conscious experiences more pleasant. It expands on a new theory that describes the evolutionary trajectory leading to conscious life forms. In short, the evidence suggests that consciousness first evolved some 300 million years ago as a consequence of the introduction of feelings. Feelings offer a strategy for making behavioural decisions. Besides playing a crucial role in the evolution of the human mind, they are a key factor in regard to mental health and quality of life. Fortunately, the human brain is plastic. By exploiting available options for modulating the mind, it is therefore possible to impact on what sort of experiences the brain serves. More specifically, you can strengthen the capacity for positive feelings and reduce the sway of negative feelings. The text covers biological, neurological, psychological, and philosophical aspects of the mind.

The Evolution of Consciousness

The Evolution of Consciousness PDF Author: Bjørn Grinde
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319436856
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book gives the reader an understanding of what consciousness is about, and of how to make conscious experiences more pleasant. It expands on a new theory that describes the evolutionary trajectory leading to conscious life forms. In short, the evidence suggests that consciousness first evolved some 300 million years ago as a consequence of the introduction of feelings. Feelings offer a strategy for making behavioural decisions. Besides playing a crucial role in the evolution of the human mind, they are a key factor in regard to mental health and quality of life. Fortunately, the human brain is plastic. By exploiting available options for modulating the mind, it is therefore possible to impact on what sort of experiences the brain serves. More specifically, you can strengthen the capacity for positive feelings and reduce the sway of negative feelings. The text covers biological, neurological, psychological, and philosophical aspects of the mind.

How Humanity Came Into Being

How Humanity Came Into Being PDF Author: M. G. Lockley
Publisher: Floris Books
ISBN: 9780863157325
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
A fascinating journey through our anthropological history which points towards an emerging collective awakening for the human race.

Evolution of Consciousness

Evolution of Consciousness PDF Author: Robert Evan Ornstein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671792245
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on his life's research, Robert Ornstein provides a look at the evolution of the mind. He explains that we are not rational but adaptive, and that it is Darwin, not Freud, who is the central scientist of the brain. Our minds have evolved to help us survive, not to reason. At the same time, our individual worlds have developed our minds and destroyed many of our natural abilities.

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul

The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul PDF Author: Simona Ginsburg
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262039303
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 665

Get Book Here

Book Description
A new theory about the origins of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the evolutionary transition to basic consciousness. What marked the evolutionary transition from organisms that lacked consciousness to those with consciousness—to minimal subjective experiencing, or, as Aristotle described it, “the sensitive soul”? In this book, Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka propose a new theory about the origin of consciousness that finds learning to be the driving force in the transition to basic consciousness. Using a methodology similar to that used by scientists when they identified the transition from non-life to life, Ginsburg and Jablonka suggest a set of criteria, identify a marker for the transition to minimal consciousness, and explore the far-reaching biological, psychological, and philosophical implications. After presenting the historical, neurobiological, and philosophical foundations of their analysis, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose that the evolutionary marker of basic or minimal consciousness is a complex form of associative learning, which they term unlimited associative learning (UAL). UAL enables an organism to ascribe motivational value to a novel, compound, non-reflex-inducing stimulus or action, and use it as the basis for future learning. Associative learning, Ginsburg and Jablonka argue, drove the Cambrian explosion and its massive diversification of organisms. Finally, Ginsburg and Jablonka propose symbolic language as a similar type of marker for the evolutionary transition to human rationality—to Aristotle's “rational soul.”

Future Consciousness

Future Consciousness PDF Author: Thomas Lombardo
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1782790705
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 796

Get Book Here

Book Description
How do our unique conscious minds reflect and amplify nature’s vast evolutionary process? This book provides a scientifically informed, psychologically holistic approach to understanding and enhancing our future consciousness, serving as a guide for creating a realistic, constructive, and ethical future. Thomas Lombardo reveals how we can flourish in the flow of evolution and create a prosperous future for ourselves, human society and the planet.

Conscious Evolution

Conscious Evolution PDF Author: Barbara Marx Hubbard
Publisher: New World Library
ISBN: 1608681181
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Get Book Here

Book Description
A Seminal Work of Visionary Hope, Updated for the 21st Century In this era of government gridlock, economic and ecological devastation, and seemingly intractable global violence, our future is ever more ripe for — and in need of — fresh, creative reimagining. With her clear-eyed, inspiring, and sweeping vision of a possible global renaissance in the new millennium, Barbara Marx Hubbard shows us that our current crises are not the precursors of an apocalypse but the natural birth pains of an awakened, universal humanity. This is our finest hour. Conscious Evolution highlights the tremendous potential of newfound scientific knowledge, technological advances, and compassionate spirituality and illustrates the opportunities that each of us has to fully participate in this exciting stage of human history. As we do, we will bring forth all that is within us and not only save ourselves, but evolve our world.

Changes of Mind

Changes of Mind PDF Author: Jenny Wade
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791428498
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 356

Get Book Here

Book Description
An original theory of the development of consciousness that brings together research from neurology, new-paradigm studies, psychology, and mysticism.

The Evolution of Consciousness

The Evolution of Consciousness PDF Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Rudolf Steiner Press
ISBN: 1855843153
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Get Book Here

Book Description
According to the initiate-research of Rudolf Steiner, humanity is in a continual process of transformation and evolution. Modern-day consciousness, based as it is on sense perception and abstract logic, differs considerably from the consciousness of ancient humanity. At that time, says Steiner, the human being was seen to be a microcosm, a concentration of the laws and activities of the cosmos. The loss of such knowledge today has led to the existential quest for meaning, and even the cul-de-sac of atheism.In these comprehensive lectures, delivered to an English audience, Rudolf Steiner indicates how it is possible for people to rediscover their connection to the cosmos. He describes how one develops higher faculties of consciousness - what he calls Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition - and gives a vivid description of life after death and the individual's progress through the planetary spheres. It is in these spheres, he explains, where tasks and goals for future incarnations are prepared in cooperation with the spiritual beings of the heavenly hierarchies.The lectures culminate in a call for mankind to take its own destiny in hand through conscious and free development of spiritual capacities.The edition of this fundamental work features a revised translation as well as previously-unavailable addresses and question-and-answer sessions.

The Evolution of Human Consciousness

The Evolution of Human Consciousness PDF Author: John Hurrell Crook
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Crook has an extensive range of interests and writes with authority on the whole sociobiological spectrum. He discusses the behavior of insects, birds, primates, and so forth, with impressive thoroughness and detail. He ... introduces an equally expert and apparently firsthand discussion of Eastern philosophy, especially Zen Buddhism. His purpose is to emphasize the duality, or perhaps multiplicity, of consciousness, and the importance of society's more objective facets. A scholarly work complete with excellent bibliographies, index, and references." --Choice

A Mind So Rare

A Mind So Rare PDF Author: Merlin Donald
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393323191
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
Donald (psychology, Queen's University, Canada) challenges the prevailing view that seeks to explain away human consciousness and presents a theory on the origins of the modern mind. He describes the cultural and neuronal forces that power human modes of awareness, and proposes that the human mind is a hybrid product of the interweaving of the brain with an invisible symbolic web of culture to form a "distributed" cognitive network. Using evidence from brain and behavioral studies of humans and animals, he explains how an expansion of consciousness transcends the limitations of the mammalian mind, and elaborates the foundations of self-evaluation and self-reflection. c. Book News Inc.