The Origin of Mind: Evolution of Brain, Cognition, and General Intelligence 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

This book is done in perfect APA (American Psychological Association) style so the student scholar of Psychology will not be disappointed! A great reference tool for people who want the "proof" of leading theories on the evolution of the human brain. A personal opinion, although this book certainly fits the tee for data (including recent) on intelligence, for example, is that the book is intended for an audience of scientific review on the general subject of the brain. Rather than an easy read, the scholarly substance of the book is well intended and inviting for further research on what we know about us and what there is to learn.

This book has completed the last ring (to me) of Darwinian evolution. I can say now the human brain can be explained in Darwinian sense.
In many occasions, I have used the knowledge of this book to debate creastionists.

This is an thoughtful, erudite and complex book weaving together various strands of research in evolution, neural organisation, cognition and mind together. Every page is littered with references, not carelessly I hasten to add. The author's main thesis, as i understand it, is that the mind essentially 'runs' simulations, and this is an evolution endowmnet arising from ontogenetic requirements to exercise control of behaviour and the environment. Anyone locked into folk psychology, especially Stich's simualtion theory, will find much to ponder here. Geary holds that folk psychology has many 'anchors' that orient the human organism towards fundamental activities to sustain itself, e.g. social cues. These anchors are shaped in development under evolutionary imperatives. Much of the book is devoted to teasing out in detail the framework that allows this to occur. The notion of a fluid intelligence is introduced to debnk the g factor (as too limitinf a construct) and explain adaptive behaviours. Each chapter deserves a review by itself. Overall, the book is tremendously impressive and detailed however, it still faces to problem of splicing folk psychological concepts with neuroscientific data, and it is here that most critics will focus there attention. Geary has assemled a welther of piece sof evidence and argumentation to make this work, but eliminativtists will not be satisfied. Having read this book quickly, I can state baldly that it is the first book in years that I will reread. Lots of food for thought.

I purchased this book based on my professional and personal interests and the positive reviews on Amazon. I am a practicing psychiatrist with a research background in neurophysiology and a longstanding interest in the origin of the human mind and the nature of consciousness. This is an exploding area in neuroscience and Dr. Geary's efforts to bring the latest developments in evolutionary theory to bear in a comprehensive review are admirable.

Here are the points I found most interesting. The human mind is unique in it's ability to create a sense of self which is stable over time and capable of utilizing past memories of self to generate behaviors likely to produce a desirable imagined future (a mental time machine). Human evolution was not driven so much by climatic or ecological change as by the need for different human tribes and subspecies to compete for and defend available ecological nitches. This produced brain systems supporting complex social behavior, abstract reasoning, the use of tools, and verbal communication. It also resulted in what the author calls an "evolutionary arms race". Read: evolution favored a war-like species capable of forming powerful inter-group attachments and loyalties and deeply rooted hostilities toward outside groups defined by geographic, racial, and cultural (and I would add religious) boundaries. Does this ring a bell as you read the newspaper?

However, unless you are a professional evolutionary neurobiologist, be warned. The task of diving for valuable pearls (and they are there) in this book is formidable. There is excessive use of undefined jargon. The organization is poor. Sections headings are uninformative. The badly needed glossary is simply absent.

I immediately abandoned any attempt to read the book cover to cover. Fortunately, an Introduction and Overview is provided which summarizes the content of each chapter. It also explaines the author's central theses and allows one to skip directly to the chaptes of most interest. For instance, Chapter 7 elaborates the brain functions distinguishing humans from apes and lower animals, their anatomical correlates, and the pressures driving their evolution.

Alas for a good editor! What is "folk biology" and "folk psychology"? With luck we will have spotted their parenthetical translations: "understanding other species" and "understanding other people". Ponder this sentence: "Comparative similarity is particularly divisive, as it provides strong evidence in support of the proposal that the human brain and mind are products of natural selection." The surrounding text doesn't help either, although one gleans that "divisive" has something to do with nature versus nurture.

My suggestion: read the introduction and overview very carefully. Skip around in the book. When something makes sense, highlight it. Take time, leave the book and come back to it. Your efforts will be rewarded.

Wayne Phillips

Very well written.

This book gives a brilliant, synthetic theory of the evolution of the human brain/mind. It is every bit as challenging as its subject. Dr. Geary has an enviable ability to collate disparate literature and put the pieces together into a coherent picture.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is not written in the chatty, conversational tone of a pop-science paperback. Dr. Geary does not condescend or patronize the reader. He assumes we are intelligent adults who are willing to be challenged and enlightened. Further, the reader can easily select a chapter that interests him or her and read it in isolation.

I think this book conclusively demonstrates that the only way we will ever understand the brain/mind is via the lens of natural and sexual selection. It is not the final word on the topic but it is one hell of a mid-point salvo.