Other Minds

The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

255 pages

English language

Published Aug. 7, 2016

ISBN:
978-0-374-22776-0
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OCLC Number:
957696590

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3 stars (2 reviews)

"Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this book, he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself. Mammals and birds are widely seen as the smartest creatures on earth. But one other branch of the tree of life has also sprouted surprising intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. New research shows that these marvelous creatures display remarkable gifts. What does it mean that intelligence on earth has evolved not once but twice? And that the mind of the octopus is nonetheless so different from our own? Combining science and philosophy with firsthand accounts of his cephalopod encounters, Godfrey-Smith shows how primitive organisms bobbing in the ocean began sending signals to each other and …

6 editions

Subjects

  • Behavior
  • Evolution
  • Psychology
  • Animal intelligence
  • Consciousness
  • Nervous system
  • Cephalopoda

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