A Mind so Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness

This is a book that takes on what the author calls the Hardliners who profess the irrelevance of the conscious mind and the illusory nature of free will. He puts the mind back into the larger social system in which bodies are embedded, going beyond the limitations of evolutionary biology and information-processing models. As Donald puts it, 'the key to understanding the human intellect is not so much the design of the individual brain as the synergy of many brains'. The cognitive tools that we use to think are themselves products of our cultural institutions. This is a serious and well informed contribution to the current debate on evolution and consciousness.