THE ORIGIN OF MIND: EVOLUTION OF BRAIN, COGNITION, AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
Book ID/图书代码： 00580005B00340
English Summary/英文概要： Darwin considered an understanding of the evolution of the human mind and brain to be of major importance to the evolutionary sciences. This groundbreaking book sets out a comprehensive, integrated theory of why and how the human mind has developed to function as it does. Geary proposes that human motivational, affective, behavioral, and cognitive systems have evolved to process social and ecological information (e.g., facial expressions) that covaried with survival or reproductive options during human evolution. Further, he argues that the ultimate focus of all of these systems is to support our attempts to gain access to and control of resources - more specifically, the social (e.g., mates), biological (e.g., food), and physical (e.g., territory) resources that supported successful survival and reproduction over time. In this view, Darwin’s conceptualization of natural selection as a "struggle for existence" becomes, for us, a struggle with other human beings for control of the available resources. This struggle provides a means of integrating modular brain and cognitive systems such as language with those brain and cognitive systems that support general intelligence. To support his arguments, Geary draws on an impressive array of recent findings in cognitive science and neuroscience as well as primatology, anthropology, and sociology. The book also explores a number of issues that are of interest in modern society, including how general intelligence relates to academic achievement, occupational status, and income. Readers will find this book a thought-provoking read and an impetus for new theories of mind.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 达尔文认为，理解了人类思维和大脑的进化过程对于进化学科来说是迈出了一大步。《思维的源头》论述了人类思维是如何发展到现在这样的水平这样一个全面、综合的理论体系。
Geary提出这样的观点，人类的动机、情意、行为和认知系统经过进化的发展，已经可以处理社会和生态信息（譬如说面部表情），而这些信息与人类进化过程中的生存和生殖有共变性。照这样的观点说，达尔文的把自然选择归结为“为生存而进行的斗争”这样一种理念对我们来说就变成了为了争夺有限资源而进行的同类间的肉搏。而正是有了这样的肉搏和争斗，我们才有机会把语言这类模式化的大脑和认知系统与其他支持一般智能的大脑和认知系统综合起来。为了论证他的观点，Geary引用了认知科学和神经科学以及灵长类动物学、人类学和社会学方面取得的大量最新科研结果。
此外，Geary还探讨了很多在当代社会颇受关注的问题，诸如一般智能和学术成绩、职业地位以及收入之间有和关联。可以说，《思维的源头》句句真知灼见，对读者颇具启发性。
Awards/获奖情况：
About the Author/作者介绍： DAVID C. GEARY received his PhD in developmental psychology in 1986 from the University of California at Riverside,after which he held faculty positions at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Missouri,first at the Rolla campus and then in Columbia.Dr.Geary is department chair and professor of psychological sciences at the University of Missouri and from 2000 to 2003 was Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences.He has published more than 100 articles and chapters across a wide range of topics,including cognitive and developmental psychology,education,evolutionary biology,and medicine.His first two books,CHILDREN’S MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENT(1994)and MALE,FEMALE:THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SEX DIFFERENCES(1998),were published by the American Psychological Association.He has given invited addresses in a variety of departments(anthropology,biology,behavior genetics,computer science,education,government,mathematics,neuroscience,physics,and psychology)and universities throughout the United States,as well as in Belgium,Canada,Germany,and Italy.In addition to these activities,he was one of the primary contributors to the MATHEMATICS FRAMEWORK FOR CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS:KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE TWELVE.Among his many distinctions is the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity in the Social and Behavioral Sciences(1996).
Format:HARDCOVER
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