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Mind and Variability Mental Darwinism, Memory, and Self
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Patrick McNamara
Book Code: C6383
ISBN: 0-275-96383-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-96383-5
184 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 6/30/1999
List Price: $106.95 (UK Sterling Price: £59.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 X 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • The book is worthwhile for bringing to light the turly fascinating ideas of Bergson and for the attempt to tie them with contemporary research.
    —Philosophy in Review
  • Endorsement From Seymour W. Itzkoff
    Professor
    Smith College:     McNamara's book is a unique and extremely creative integration of philospohical and scientific themes.
Description: Mental Darwinism, a new approach to the study of mental phenomena,applies selectionist ideas to problems of mind and behavior. McNamara challenges the instructivist view that memories occur when information from the environment is transferred into the mind. Current experimental evidence confirms the insights of two turn-of-the-century philosophers, William James and Henri Bergson, who originally proposed applying Darwinian principles to mental processes. The view of the mind that emerges from this approach helps us understand why memory evolves as it does and is not always accurate or veridical, how memory is related to personal identity, and how a large number of neuropsychological disorders develop.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Selection and Memory
  • Limitations of the Instructivist Account of Memory
  • Bergson's Memory Theory
  • Evidence for Selectionist Processing
  • Frontal Lobes, Memory, and Inhibition
  • William James on Memory, Variability, and Consciousness
  • The Theater of Simultaneous Possibilities
  • The Stream of Thought and Self-Regulation
  • Recollection and Self
  • Dreaming
  • Selection, Self, and Culture
  • References
  • Index
LC Card Number: 98-31365
LCC Class: BF371
Dewey Class: 153
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