A Seminary Co-op Notable Book

“A big picture perspective on the mind, decision-making, and consciousness…Provocative and stimulating.” —Philosophical Psychology

“LeDoux’s aim is to provide a new theory of being human by dividing our evolutionary past into four realms: biological at the bottom, then neurobiological, cognitive and conscious…Along the way are excellent accounts of the evolution of brain structures and cognitive abilities.” —New Scientist

“A rigorously scientific yet eminently readable exploration of what it means to be human.” —Publishers Weekly

Modern science has largely dispensed with mind-body dualism, yet people still tend to imagine their minds as separate from their physical being. Even researchers persistently presume a “self” somehow distinct from the rest of the organism.

Arguing that the self is a barrier to understanding, leading neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux offers a new framework based on four realms of existence: bodily, neural, cognitive, and conscious. Every living thing, whether bacterium or plant or animal, has a body. Animals alone then supplement such biological existence with a nervous system, which enables quick and precise control of the organism. Certain animals can also think and plan, and thus exist cognitively. Finally, some of the cognitive organisms have inner experiences of and thoughts about the world—the hallmarks of the conscious realm.

These four realms cooperate continuously to create the experience of a being with a past, present, and future. The result, LeDoux shows, is not a self but an “ensemble of being” that subsumes humans’ entire existence, both as individuals and as a species.

"LeDoux’s aim is to provide a new theory of being human by dividing our evolutionary past into four realms: biological at the bottom, then neurobiological, cognitive and conscious…Along the way are excellent accounts of the evolution of brain structures and cognitive abilities." - New Scientist

"[LeDoux] suggests that there are four basic varieties of life on Earth: biological, neurobiological, cognitive and conscious. The book provides an in-depth description of these realms (I found the cognitive one especially thought-provoking) and describes how they evolved." - Nature

"[Presents] a big picture perspective on the mind, decision-making, and consciousness…Provocative and stimulating." - Philosophical Psychology

"A rigorously scientific yet eminently readable exploration of what it means to be human…[LeDoux] delves into complex notions of personality and the self, the construction of internal narratives, and memory, elegantly making the case for the emergent properties of the mind without recourse to an undetectable soul or reducing the complexity of human existence to merely physical factors. The result is a finely wrought, thought-provoking feast for the mind." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)