Table of Contents
Beginnings 3
Part I About Life and Its Regulation (Homeostasis)
1 On the Human Condition 11
A Simple Idea
Feeling Versus Intellect
How Original Was the Human Cultural Mind?
Humble Beginnings
From the Life of Social Insects
Homeostasis
Foreshadowing Minds and Feelings Is Not the Same as Generating Minds and Feelings
Early Organisms and Human Cultures
2 In a Region of Unlikeness 33
Life
Life on the Move
3 Varieties of Homeostasis 44
The Distinct Varieties of Homeostasis
Homeostasis Now
The Roots of an Idea
4 From Single Cells to Nervous Systems and Minds 53
Ever Since Bacterial Life
Nervous Systems
The Living Body and the Mind
Part II Assembling The Cultural Mind
5 The Origin of Minds 71
The Momentous Transition
Minded Life
The Big Conquest
Images Require Nervous Systems
Images of the World Outside Our Organism
Images of the World Internal to Our Organism
6 Expanding Minds 84
The Hidden Orchestra
Image Making
Meanings, Verbal Translations, and the Making of Memories
Enriching Minds
A Note on Memory
7 Affect 99
What Feelings Are
Valence
Kinds of Feelings
The Emotive Response Process
Where Do Emotive Responses Come From?
Emotional Stereotypes
The Inherent Sociality of Drives, Motivations, and Conventional Emotions
Layered Feelings
8 The Construction of Feelings 117
Where Do Feelings Come From?
Assembling Feelings
The Continuity of Bodies and Nervous Systems
The Role of the Peripheral Nervous System
Other Peculiarities of the Body-Brain Relationship
The Neglected Role of the Gut
Where Are Feeling Experiences Located?
Feelings Explained?
An Aside on Remembrances of Feelings Past
9 Consciousness 143
About Consciousness
Observing Consciousness
Subjectivity: The First and Indispensable Component of Consciousness
The Second Component of Consciousness: Integrating Experiences
From Sensing to Consciousness
An Aside on the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Part III The Cultural Mind At Work
10 On Cultures 165
The Human Cultural Mind in Action
Homeostasis and the Biological Roots of Cultures
Distinctive Human Cultures
Feelings as Arbiters and Negotiators
Assessing the Merits of an Idea
From Religious Beliefs and Morality to Political Governance
The Arts, Philosophical Inquiry, and the Sciences
Contradicting an Idea
Taking Stock
A Hard Day's Night
11 Medicine, Immortality, and Algorithms 194
Modern Medicine
Immortality
The Algorithmic Account of Humanity
Robots Serving Humans
Back to Mortality
12 On the Human Condition Now 211
An Ambiguous State of Affairs
Is There a Biology Behind the Cultural Crisis?
An Unresohed Clash
13 The Strange Order of Things 234
Acknowledgments 245
Notes and References 249
Index 295