000 04905nam a22005535i 4500
001 978-94-007-6259-6
003 DE-He213
005 20140220082941.0
007 cr nn 008mamaa
008 130603s2013 ne | s |||| 0|eng d
020 _a9789400762596
_9978-94-007-6259-6
024 7 _a10.1007/978-94-007-6259-6
_2doi
050 4 _aGE1-350
072 7 _aPDZ
_2bicssc
072 7 _aRN
_2bicssc
072 7 _aNAT000000
_2bisacsh
072 7 _aSCI026000
_2bisacsh
082 0 4 _a500
_223
100 1 _aRoth, Gerhard.
_eauthor.
245 1 4 _aThe Long Evolution of Brains and Minds
_h[electronic resource] /
_cby Gerhard Roth.
264 1 _aDordrecht :
_bSpringer Netherlands :
_bImprint: Springer,
_c2013.
300 _aXVII, 320 p. 55 illus., 23 illus. in color.
_bonline resource.
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _atext file
_bPDF
_2rda
505 0 _aMind and Intelligence -- What is evolution?- The mind begins with life -- The language of neurons -- Bacteria, archaea, protozoa: successful life without a nervous system -- The “invertebrates” and their nervous systems -- Invertebrate cognition and intelligence -- The Deuterostomia -- The brains of vertebrates -- Sensory systems – the coupling between brain and environment -- How intelligent are vertebrates?- Do animals have consciousness?- Comparing vertebrate brains -- Are humans unique?- Determinants of the evolution of brains and minds -- Brains and minds.
520 _aOn the basis of evolutionary and behavioral biology, neuroscience and anthropology, this book investigates to which extent it is possible to reconstruct the evolution of nervous systems and brains as well as of mental-cognitive abilities, in short “intelligence”, and to which extent we can correlate the one with the other. One central question is, whether or not abilities exist that make humans truly unique, or whether the evolution of the human mind was a gradual process. Exactly which neural features make animals and humans intelligent and creative? Is it absolute or relative brain size or the size of “intelligence centers” inside the brains, the number of nerve cells inside the brain in total or in such “intelligence centers” decisive for the degree of intelligence, of mind and eventually consciousness? Which are the driving forces behind these processes? Here, many different answers exist. For some experts the driving force for brains and minds are the conditions for biological survival: the more complex these conditions, the more effective need to be sense organs, nervous systems and brains, and the stronger is the tendency to an increase in learning abilities, behavioral flexibility and innovation power of animals. This is the ecological intellicence hypothesis. Other authors believe that the true driving force is the challenge from social life of an animal: the more complex the social conditions, the more sophisticated are abilities such as social learning, imitation, empathy, knowledge transfer, consciousness and the development of a theory of mind and meta-cognition. This, again, needs progressive changes inside the brains. This is the social intelligence hypothesis. Again other authors distinguish physical intelligence as a third form of cognitive functions mostly related to tool use, tool fabrication and understanding of the principles of how things work. Finally, some experts believe that the decisive factor in the evolution of brains and minds consisted in an increase in the speed and efficacy of information processing in cognitive brain centers. This is the general intelligence or information processing hypothesis. It is discussed, which of these hypotheses is the most convincing one. At its end, the book deals with the eminent question of whether we can arrive at a naturalistic concept of mind and consciousness. Is it possible to explain mind and intelligence within the framework of the natural science, or do mind and intelligence as found in humans, transcend nature?
650 0 _aScience (General).
650 0 _aArtificial intelligence.
650 0 _aAnimal behavior.
650 0 _aEvolution (Biology).
650 0 _aLife sciences.
650 0 _aHumanities.
650 0 _aConsciousness.
650 1 4 _aPopular Science.
650 2 4 _aPopular Science in Nature and Environment.
650 2 4 _aEvolutionary Biology.
650 2 4 _aBehavioural Sciences.
650 2 4 _aCognitive Psychology.
650 2 4 _aArtificial Intelligence (incl. Robotics).
650 2 4 _aInterdisciplinary Studies.
710 2 _aSpringerLink (Online service)
773 0 _tSpringer eBooks
776 0 8 _iPrinted edition:
_z9789400762589
856 4 0 _uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6259-6
912 _aZDB-2-EES
999 _c99852
_d99852