- Highly multidisciplinary collection of essays on mind
- The first biosemiotic collection devoted entirely to mind
- Many chapters contain extensive lists of references that constitute suggestions for further reading
- Several chapters are written by early career mind scientists and provide cutting edge thinking on mind
Buy this book
- About this book
-
The big question of how and why mindedness evolved necessitates collaborative, multidisciplinary investigation. Biosemiotics provides a new conceptual space that attracts a multitude of thinkers in the biological and cognitive sciences and the humanities who recognize continuity in the biosphere from the simplest to the most complex organisms, and who are united in the project of trying to account for even language and human consciousness in this comprehensive picture of life. The young interdiscipline of biosemiotics has so far by and large focused on codes, signs and sign processes in the microworld—a fact that reflects the field’s strong representation in microbiology and embryology. What philosophers of mind and cognitive scientists can contribute to the growing interdiscipline are insights into how the biosemiotic weltanschauung applies to complex organisms like humans where such signs and sign processes constitute human society and culture.
- Reviews
-
From the reviews:
“The chapters provide one of the best explorations of mind-as-process in an age where only empirical phenomena exist, i.e., where there are no extra-empirical things (naturalism). This wide-ranging exploration of an increasingly influential approach to understanding the meaning of ‘mind’ will interest philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and cognitive scientists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” (R. Paul Thompson, Choice, Vol. 50 (11), August, 2013)
- Table of contents (21 chapters)
-
-
Introduction: Exploring the Origins of Mindedness in Nature
Pages 1-17
-
Organic Codes and the Natural History of Mind
Pages 21-52
-
The Descent of Humanity: The Biological Roots of Human Consciousness, Culture and History
Pages 53-84
-
From Non-minds to Minds: Biosemantics and the Tertium Quid
Pages 85-95
-
Cybersemiotics: A New Foundation for a Transdisciplinary Theory of Consciousness, Cognition, Meaning and Communication
Pages 97-126
-
Table of contents (21 chapters)
Recommended for you

Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
-
- Book Title
- Origins of Mind
- Editors
-
- Liz Swan
- Series Title
- Biosemiotics
- Series Volume
- 8
- Copyright
- 2013
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Copyright Holder
- Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
- eBook ISBN
- 978-94-007-5419-5
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-94-007-5419-5
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-94-007-5418-8
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-94-007-9505-1
- Series ISSN
- 1875-4651
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XII, 420
- Topics