Intro to Mind & Brain

This book is about a biological organ, the brain, and what it does, the mind. As with all body parts, evolution has adapted brains to suit particular environments and ways of life. If the brain has also evolved, and is the vehicle of the mind, does it follow that the mind has also evolved? The answer to this question must be both "Yes" and "No". The brain and "biological mind" of primates evolved for life in the jungle or out on the savannah. They are adapted to solve the particular problems of finding food and shelter, of reproducing and caring for young. However, in addition to being an evolved "biological mind", the human mind is also a "cultural mind" socializid in how to solve a host of "unnatural" problems thrown up by the invention of music-making and reading, painting, computer-programming and voting in elections. The cultural mind is reflexive - it reflects upon itself. To an extent, the mind is how we talk and think about it.