Origins of Mind [Paperback]

The big question of how and why mindedness evolved necessitates collaborative,multidisciplinary investigation. Biosemiotics provides a new conceptual space that attracts amultitude of thinkers in the biological and cognitive sciences and the humanities whorecognize continuity in the biosphere from the simplest to the most complex organisms, andwho are united in the project of trying to account for even language and human consciousnessin this comprehensive picture of life. The young interdiscipline of biosemiotics has so far byand large focused on codes, signs and sign processes in the microworlda fact that reflectsthe fields strong representation in microbiology and embryology. What philosophers of mindand cognitive scientists can contribute to the growing interdiscipline are insights into how thebiosemiotic weltanschauung applies to complex organisms like humans where such signs andsign processes constitute human society and culture.This volume gathers together a sampling of contemporary thinking on when, why, and how mindedness evolved in the natural world from researchers working in the biological, cognitive, and medical sciences.

Introduction: exploring the origins of mindedness in nature; Liz Swan
BIOSEMIOTICS
1. Organic Codes and the Natural History of Mind; Marcello Barbieri
2. The Descent of Humanity; Angelo Recchia-Luciani
3. From Non-Minds to Minds: biosemantics and the Tertium Quid; Crystal LHote
4. Cybersemiotics:? a new foundation for a transdisciplinary theory of consciousness, cognition, meaning and communication; Soren Brier
MENTAL REPRESENTATION
5. The Emergence of Empathy in the Context of Cross-Species Mind-reading; John Sarnecki
6. The Evolution of Scenario Visualization and the Early Hominin Mind; Rob Arp
7. Representation il#,