Read more
This book presents a compelling unifying theory of which aspects of the brain are innate and which are not.
List of contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; 2. The mind and the brain; 3. Hierarchy, modularity and development; 4. Claims of innate modularity; 5. The mind and emotions; 6. A realistic view of evolution, development and emotions; 7. Conclusion; Appendix. Language infinities; References; Index.
About the author
George Ellis is Emeritus Professor in the Mathematics Department at the University of Cape Town, and visiting Professor in the Physics Department, University of Oxford. He co-authored, with Stephen Hawking, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time (Cambridge, 1975). He has been awarded the Star of South Africa Medal by President Nelson Mandela, the Order of Mapungubwe by President Thabo Mbeki, and the Templeton Prize. He has many awards including six honorary doctorates, the latest being awarded by the University of Paris. His latest book is How Can Physics Underlie the Mind? Top-Down Causation in the Human Context (2016).Mark Solms is a psychoanalyst and a Professor in Neuropsychology. He currently holds the Chair of Neuropsychology at the University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, and is the President of the South African Psychoanalytical Association. He is also currently Research Chair of the International Psychoanalytical Association and Science Director of the American Psychoanalytic Association. Solms founded the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society in 2000 and was a Founding Editor of the journal Neuropsychoanalysis. He has published over 350 articles and chapters, and seven books, the latest being The Brain and the Inner World (2002, translated into thirteen languages) and The Feeling Brain (2015, his selected papers). He is the lead educator of the free online course 'What is a Mind?' on the platform FutureLearn.
Summary
The nature/nurture question is an age-old problem. By taking into account brain physiology on the one hand, and the developmental processes that shape the brain on the other, this book presents a compelling unifying theory of which brain modules can be innate and which cannot.
