The Conscious Mind - (MIT Press Essential Knowledge) by Zoltan Torey (Paperback)

The Emergence of Mind by Zoltan Torey is a groundbreaking book that unravels the mystery of how the human mind emerged from the collection of neurons in the brain.

This comprehensive guide offers an accessible and concise description of the evolutionary breakthrough that created the human mind, drawing on insights from evolutionary biology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Torey reconstructs the sequence of events by which Homo erectus became Homo sapiens, highlighting the augmented functioning that underpins the emergent mind.

He explains how the brain acquired self-awareness, functional autonomy, language, and the ability to think, understand itself, and the world. The book provides a detailed account of how protolanguage evolved into language, how a brain subsystem for the emergent mind was built, and why these developments are opaque to introspection.

Torey proposes that once life began, consciousness had to emerge - because consciousness is the informational source of the brain's behavioral response. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the intricacies of the human mind and its evolution.

With its clear and concise writing style, The Emergence of Mind is an essential addition to any library on psychology, neuroscience, or philosophy.