The Engine of Reason, the Seat of the Soul

A new picture of the mind is emerging, and explanations now exist for
what has so long seemed mysterious. This real understanding of how the biological
brain works -- of how we work -- has generated a mood of excitement that is shared
in a half-dozen intersecting disciplines. Philosopher Paul Churchland, who is widely
known as a gifted teacher and expository writer, explains these scientific
developments in a simple, authoritative, and pictorial fashion. He not only opens
the door into the ongoing research of the neurobiological and connectionist
communities but goes further, probing the social and moral dimensions of recent
experimental results that assign consciousness to all but the very simplest forms of
animals.In a fast-paced, entertaining narrative, replete with examples and numerous
explanatory illustrations, Churchland brings together an exceptionally broad range
of intellectual issues. He summarizes new results from neuroscience and recent work
with artificial neural networks that together suggest a unified set of answers to
questions about how the brain actually works; how it sustains a thinking, feeling,
dreaming self; and how it sustains a self-conscious person.Churchland first explains
the science -- the powerful role of vector coding in sensory representation and
pattern recognition, artificial neural networks that imitate parts of the brain,
recurrent networks, neural representation of the social world, and diagnostic
technologies and therapies for the brain in trouble. He then explores the
far-reaching consequences of the current neurocomputational understanding of mind
for our philosophical convictions, and for our social, moral, legal, medical, and
personal lives.Churchland's wry wit and skillful teaching style are evident
throughout. He introduces the remarkable representational power of a single human
brain, for instance, via a captivating brain/World-Trade-Tower TV screen analogy.
"Who can be watching this pixilated show?" Churchland queries; the answer is a
provocative "no one." And he has included a folded stereoscopic viewer, attached to
the inside back cover of the book, that readers can use to participate directly in
several revealing experiments concerning stereo vision.A Bradford Book