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Mind and Variability Mental Darwinism, Memory, and Self
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Patrick McNamara
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: £73.95)
Availability: Print on demand
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
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
About the Author: PATRICK MCNAMARA is Assistant Professor of Behavioral Neurosciences at Boston University School of Medicine, and Research Director at the Partnership for Organ Donation in Boston./e He has a background in behavioral neuroscience, and his research interests include memory, language, and frontal lobe disorders. He has published several scholarly articles and book chapters.
LCC Class: 153
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