A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness

In this lively and engaging book, the distinguished psychologist Nicholas Humphrey takes the reader on an exhilarating journey spanning millions of years -- in the search for clues to how human consciousness evolved. In A History of the Mind Humphrey proposes a radical new solution to the so-called "hard problem" that has baffled generations of philosophers and scientists -- how does the water of the brain yield the wine of conscious experience? Raw sensations are central to all conscious states, he argues, and he shows ingeniously how our physical and emotional self-awareness may have developed out of our primitive ancestors' bodily responses of pain and pleasure.