How History Made the Mind: The Cultural Origins of Objective Thinking

Couverture
Open Court Publishing, 2003 - 227 pages
How History Made the Mind, David Martel Johnson argues that what we now think of as "reason" or "objective thinking" is not a natural product of the existence of an enlarged brain or culmination of innate biological tendencies. Rather, it is a way of learning to use the brain that runs counter to the natural characteristics involved in being an animal, a mammal, and a primate. Johnson defends his theory of mind as a cultural artifact against objections, and uses it to question a number of currently fashionable positions in philosophy of mind, known theories of Julian Jaynes, which Johnson argues go too far in the direction of emphasizing the dissimilarities between ancient and modern ways of thinking.
 

Table des matières

Ancient and Modern
41
Mind As a Product of the Greek Revolution
87
Detailed Contents
96
Reintroducing the Mind into Nature
131
A Short Speculative History of Reason
173
Bibliography
211
Index
221
Droits d'auteur

Expressions et termes fréquents

Informations bibliographiques