Intelligence in the flesh: why your mind needs your body much more than it thinks

343 Pages·2016·1.572 MB·English

by  Claxton, Guy

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INTELLIGENCE IN THE FLESH
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INTELLIGENCE
IN THE FLESH
WHY YOUR MIND NEEDS YOUR BODY
MUCH MORE THAN IT THINKS
GUY CLAXTON
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
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Copyright © 2015 Guy Claxton
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in
any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
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written permission from the publishers.
For information about this and other Yale University Press publications,
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Typeset in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015940459
ISBN 978-0-300-20882-5
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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We only believe in those thoughts which have been
conceived not in the brain but in the whole body.
W. B. Yeats, Essays and Introductions,
Palgrave Macmillan, 1961, p. 235
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To Jude, with love
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CONTENTS
List of Figures ix
1 Limbering Up: An Introduction 1
2 A Brief History of Anti- Bodies 15
3 Bodies: What Are We Made Of? 32
4 Why the Body Needs a Brain 56
5 How Brain and Body Talk to Each Other 79
6 Emotions and Feelings 102
7 The Embodied Mind 138
8 The Welling Up of Consciousness 167
9 The Augmented Body 193
10 Craftiness and Expertise 219
11 Rehab: How Can I Get My Body Back? 242
12 The Embodied Life: Self, Spirit and Society 264
Notes 293
Acknowledgements 314
Index 316
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FIGURES
page
1 An example of a Raven’s Progressive Matrices type
of Intelligence Test. 24
2 The robotic Puppy. AI Lab, Dept of Informatics,
University of Zurich. 40
3 The Yokoi hand. By kind permission of
Gabriel Gomez. 43
4 The Held and Hein cradle. Both kittens get the same
visual experience, but for only one of them is this
linked to their own actions. 62
5 Seal / donkey illusion. 69
6 The integration of Needs, Deeds and See’ds. 71
7 A Kanitzsa illusory pyramid. 77
8 Titchener circles illusion. 96
9 The gerund attacks some peaceful pronouns. From
How to Be Topp by Geoffrey Willans, cartoon by
Ronald Searle. 1954 © Ronald Searle. Reprinted by
kind permission of the Ronald Searle Cultural Trust
and The Sayle Literary Agency. 145
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