One of America’s foremost philosophers offers a major new account of the origins of the conscious mind. How did we come to have minds? For centuries, this question has intrigued psychologists, physicists, poets, and philosophers, who have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled ability to create, imagine, and explain. Disciples of Darwin have long aspired to explain how consciousness, language, and culture could have appeared through natural selection, blazing promising trails that tend, however, to end in confusion and controversy. Even though our understanding of the inner workings of proteins, neurons, and DNA is deeper than ever before, the matter of how our minds came to be has largely remained a mystery. That is now changing, says Daniel C. Dennett. In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, his most comprehensive exploration of evolutionary thinking yet, he builds on ideas from computer science and biology to show how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. Part philosophical whodunit, part bold scientific conjecture, this landmark work enlarges themes that have sustained Dennett’s legendary career at the forefront of philosophical thought. In his inimitable style―laced with wit and arresting thought experiments―Dennett explains that a crucial shift occurred when humans developed the ability to share memes, or ways of doing things not based in genetic instinct. Language, itself composed of memes, turbocharged this interplay. Competition among memes―a form of natural selection―produced thinking tools so well-designed that they gave us the power to design our own memes. The result, a mind that not only perceives and controls but can create and comprehend, was thus largely shaped by the process of cultural evolution. An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers, scientists, and thinkers, From Bacteria to Bach and Back will delight and entertain anyone eager to make sense of how the mind works and how it came about. 4 color, 18 black-and-white illustrations

什么是意识？这是个世纪之问。 弗朗西斯•克里克是一位善于提出问题并给出惊人答案的天才。 弗朗西斯•克里克与詹姆斯•沃森一道，发现DNA结构，改变了我们对生命本质的理解，从而名垂青史。 现在，克里克又一次站在科学的前沿，把他的注意力转到对人类意识奥秘的探索上来。克里克决定要揭示脑的复杂性，大胆探索人类存在的一些最基本问题：我们有自由意志吗？什么使我们成为区别于其他动物且具有感知能力的生物？灵魂真的存在吗？抑或我们只不过是一堆神经元的复杂集合吗？在这本具有开拓性和争议的著作中，弗朗西斯•克里克向近代科学、哲学和宗教思想的根本基础提出挑战。