Consciousness and the Social Brain (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780199928644)

What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. The human brain has evolved a complex circuitry that allows it to be socially intelligent. This social machinery has only just begun to be studied in detail. One function of this circuitry is to attribute awareness to others: to compute that person Y is aware of thing X. In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory.

Author: Michael S. a. Graziano
ISBN-10: 0199928649
ISBN-13: 9780199928644
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Language: English
Published: 09/02/2013
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.60w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 07/01/2013 pg. 93
Choice 09/01/2014 pg. 166