Moreover, given that I had taken an introductory class in Neuroscience, it was not that hard to follow up with the brain regions, otherwise, I would have been lost. so with this book, i suspect i was operating at about a 27% comprehension level and whereas that might seem like a not-worth-it effort, it was. Through evolution, such responses become more sophisticated and lead to the development of brains and neurons that can carry out such responses appropriately. The trailblazing investigation of a question that has confounded us for centuries: how is consciousness created? This is a book that gets close to naming it, however rigorously, but based on a few vaguely conceptualized qualifications that are not aligned with any operationalized constructs one can rely on showing up as variable data in a test. In Self Comes to Mind, USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio creates a model of consciousness and a hypothesis about how consciousness came to evolve. i absorbed "more" knowledge and am glad for it. It is both about one’s The last part of Damasio’s Self Comes to As such, the protoself own personhood and one’s own identity. In Self Comes to Mind, world-renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio goes against the long-standing idea that consciousness is separate from the body, presenting compelling new scientific evidence that consciousness - what we think of as a mind with a self - is in fact a biological process created by a living organism. Three stars only, not for the lack of ideas or content. (2) It's not at all well organized. the brain is complex and the research tools are sophisticated; consequently, the knowledge being gathered is fascinating. Perhaps most importantly, the "core-self" can be defined by their being a self-known relationship between organism and "object". After reading this book for the second time, I am more impressed than ever that the author has described the working of the human brain better than anything I have ever read. It is done by the brain, but the thing mapped is the body and it's through this mapping that "the self comes to mind". more to learn ... yes of course. In Self Comes to Mind, he goes against the long-standing idea that consciousness is somehow separate from the body, presenting compelling new scientific evidence that consciousness—what we think of as a mind with a self—is to begin with a biological process created by a living organism. Though I wanted, oh how I so dearly wanted, to give it 5 when I began. ; Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, 2003, etc.) In making this argument, Damasio is clear that this tie of consciousness to our deepest body core is continually operative in our daily life (i.e., we moderns have not left our body behind in our evolutionary past). Damasio theorizes that the precursor to consciousness would have been a proto-self with primordial feelings resulting from neurons being intimately and consistently connected to the body, forming a map of the internal state of the organism and a feedback-loop in order to maintain homeostasis. If you want to learn about Damasio's ideas I suggest you read the first two books I mentioned. The Archaeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions, by Jaak Panksepp and Lucy Biven. Nada. Damasio ends with a speculative chapter on the evolutionary process by which mind developed and then gave rise to self. Edition 2007. Though it might be a weird choice, after reading it three times I think this is my favorite book. The previous two books that I have read focused on feelings and the body. This is a brilliant, high-level look at the state of the science of consciousness that actually has the guts and the gravitas to hypothesize a model that doesn't smack into the mind-body problem. the book is very well organized although the technical terms used kept me from grasping more even as they added gravitas to the book's point of view. Having an increasing feeling that philosophers have mostly fumbled this ball, with the possible exception of Daniel Dennett, I delved into this complex book with some expectations. Moreover, given that I had taken an introductory class in Neuroscience, it was not that hard to follow up with the brain regions, otherwise, I would have been lost. Do we have something called a "soul" that is immaterial, and different from our physical beings? Damasio makes his case with phrases that wink at the reader, as if shamefully, with assertions of how the brain works that are unfounded. If not, where does the sense of self come from, and how does it differ from that of a sea slug, or a squirrel? eBook ID: Se-54264f39abe02e4 | Author: Antonio Damasio Self Comes To Mind PDF eBook 1 Download Self Comes to Mind PDF eBook RUNNING HEAD THEORY OF MIND AMP EVOLUTION 1 THEORY OF MIND AND THE I was also fascinated by the concept of single cells exhibiting a “will to live”—a need for survival and adaptation that possibly became the foundation f. Antonio Damasio does an admirable job in hypothesizing neural/biological connections to the seemingly immeasurable existence of self and consciousness. by Pantheon, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. What makes the images, sounds, and smells arriving at our sense organs, compile a frame of 'experience' that one can be subjective about: that is, sensing our sensing, and being aware of our awareness. Those tools do not exist. Later, he moved to the United States as a research fellow at the Aphasia Research Center in Boston. But I found some of the other elements fascinating and I'm interested in reading more. seeks to understand “the mystery of consciousness.” “Consciousness is a state of mind in which there is knowledge of one’s own existence and of the existence of surroundings”—i.e., where the self introduces the property of subjectivity to the mix. If not, where does the sense of self come from, and how does it differ from that of a sea slug, or a squirrel? On the contrary, the book is beaming with information, but that's probably the downfall of it too. This book is basically the updated edition of. Mostly a repetition of his previous books, Descartes Error and The Feeling of What Happens, without the anecdotes and with too much neuro-technical details. I appreciated how he worked from the ground up, beginning with the development of a single cell organism and relating its basic properties to its more complex manifestations in the modern human. If Dimasio's writing is any indication, his sex life must be as interesting as live coverage of C-span. I have been thinking about how complex systems work, and anything which helps me to think in that direction is great fun. I give four stars. The mapping is an awareness of body states and that awareness is embodied in our neural circuitry. moments. The result is a groundbreaking investigative journey into the neurobiological foundations of mind and self. Damasio is a brilliant cognitive scientist, and I think his other books have been wonderful. About Self Comes to Mind A leading neuroscientist explores with authority, with imagination, and with unparalleled mastery how the brain constructs the mind and how the brain makes that mind conscious. This is not for the first-time layperson, but if you know your Sacks and Ramachandran, this is the no-punches-pulled seminar I was always looking for. I think it encounters the usual limitations as a total philosophical or ontological theory, but it provides good explanations for some of the neuroscience, and certainly richer than behavioural accounts that would reduce to stimulus-response models and more subtle than functionalist accounts that would reduce consciousness to some solely intellectual affair. Please, an emotional caress. Damasio theorizes that the precursor to consciousness would have been a proto-self with primordial feelings resulting from neur. Awesome book. Damasio claims he has shifted the proto-self to a primordial self by adding feelings into the process of becoming a self in an earlier stage, but this does not merit a whole new book I think. Learn the Best Exercises and Activities to Work Through Your Emotions. In the Pleistocene, he suggests, humans developed emotive responses to shapes and sounds that helped lead to the development of the arts. In Self Comes to Mind he gives us a fascinating window of this inter­face between the brain and the world, which is grounded in our own body.” — Le Figaro (France) “The marvel of reading Damasio’s book is to be convinced one can follow the brain at work as it makes the private reality that is the deepest self.” —V. Damasio, Antonio (2010) Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain. They are more factual, more explanatory and less philosophically, and thus I think better suited to the author's strengths. the brain is complex and the research tools are sophisticated; consequently, the knowledge being gathered is fascinating. Do we have something called a "soul" that is immaterial, and different from our physical beings? The mapping is an awareness of body states and that awareness is embodied in our neural circuitry. and this book, although beyond me, gave me a list of thoughts and terms that i am glad for. This is a mind, and it awakens. the mapping onto the brain of our experiences was another aspect of this book that i sensed was well done. It is done by the brain, but the thing mapped is the body and it's through this mapping that "the self comes to mind". Download books for free. That self, however, long-precedes consciousness and rests, ultimately, on the primordial feelings of the "protoself" ("a valence, somewhere along the pleasure-to-pain range"), and predisposes our conscious decision-making in fundamental ways. It's way too detailed for a non-cog-neuroscientist, and in parts, way too obvious for a professional in the field. Awareness may be mostly mystery, but Damasio shapes its hints and glimmerings into an imaginative, informed narrative, The marvel of reading Damasio's book is to be convinced one can follow the brain at work as it makes the private reality that is the deepest self, Damasio's most ambitious work yet. Though it might be a weird choice, after reading it three times I think this is my favorite book. His command of the themes he approaches is impressive, as is the vigor with which he tackles such recondite issues as the elusive "self," inside the head. You may start with this one or not, does not matter, as Dr Damasio, a genius writer, takes it very didactically. With vigor, Damasio attacks the mind-body problem (or more specifically the mind-brain problem) of consciousness. Mostly a repetition of his previous books, Descartes Error and The Feeling of What Happens, without the anecdotes and with too much neuro-technical details. 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