Author Description
What is consciousness and how can a brain, a mere collection of neurons, create it? In Consciousness and the Social Brain, Princeton neuroscientist Michael Graziano lays out an audacious new theory to account for the deepest mystery of them all. The human brain has evolved a complex circuitry that allows it to be socially intelligent. This social machinery has only just begun to be studied in detail. One function of this circuitry is to attribute awareness to others: to compute that person Y is aware of thing X. In Graziano's theory, the machinery that attributes awareness to others also attributes it to oneself. Damage that machinery and you disrupt your own awareness. Graziano discusses the science, the evidence, the philosophy, and the surprising implications of this new theory. Now in an affordable paperback edition!
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
How does the physical brain generate the subjective experience of consciousness? Michael Graziano, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, proposes the Attention Schema Theory to explain consciousness as a construct of the brain's social intelligence machinery. By analyzing how the brain tracks the attention of others, Graziano argues that the same mechanism is turned inward to create a model of one's own awareness, effectively demystifying the internal experience as a functional data-processing output.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- The Attention Schema Theory framework
- Analysis of social cognition circuitry in the human brain
- Neurobiological evidence linking social perception to self-awareness
Scope Limits
- Detailed clinical pathology of specific brain lesions
- Comprehensive historical survey of dualist philosophy
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Experts and readers frequently note the accessibility of Graziano's prose, which translates complex neurobiological concepts into clear, logical arguments. The text is widely recognized as a significant contribution to the physicalist approach to consciousness, providing a structured alternative to traditional philosophical debates.
Page Count:
288
Publication Date:
2015-09-14
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190263199
ISBN-13:
9780190263195
Psychology
Neuroscience
Brain
Consciousness
Philosophy of