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Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness Paperback – May 10, 2005
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Concise and understandable, the book explains pertinent findings of modern neuroscience and describes how consciousness arises in complex brains. Edelman explores the relation of consciousness to causation, to evolution, to the development of the self, and to the origins of feelings, learning, and memory. His analysis of the brain activities underlying consciousness is based on recent remarkable advances in biochemistry, immunology, medical imaging, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, yet the implications of his book extend farther―beyond the worlds of science and medicine into virtually every area of human inquiry.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherYale University Press
- Publication dateMay 10, 2005
- Dimensions7.78 x 5 x 0.57 inches
- ISBN-100300107617
- ISBN-13978-0300107616
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Highly readable.”—Oliver Sacks, New York Review of Books
“Consciousness is a hot topic, but still a mystery. One of the leaders of the scientific approach to the study of consciousness, Gerald Edelman has written a book that is a good roadmap for the lay reader.”—Francis Crick, author of The Astonishing Hypothesis
About the Author
Gerald M. Edelman, M.D., is director of the Neurosciences Institute and president of Neurosciences Research Foundation. He is also professor and chair of the Department of the Neurobiology at the Scripps Research Institute. For his studies on the structure and diversity of antibodies he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
Product details
- Publisher : Yale University Press; Nota Bene ed. edition (May 10, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0300107617
- ISBN-13 : 978-0300107616
- Item Weight : 6.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 7.78 x 5 x 0.57 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,741,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,160 in Popular Neuropsychology
- #2,665 in Consciousness & Thought Philosophy
- #3,904 in Cognitive Psychology (Books)
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Customers find the writing style engaging and informative. They appreciate the concise and meaningful sentences that carry important information. The topics are interesting and provide valuable insights. Readers consider the book a worthwhile read, even though it may be challenging at times.
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Customers appreciate the book's writing style. They find it concise and informative, with a complex sentence structure. The sentences carry a lot of meaning, and there are no wasted pages. Readers also mention that the glossary and index are useful. Overall, they describe the book as well-written and clear in explaining the author's theory of consciousness.
"Consciousness is a complex topic and Edelman is easy to understand for a beginner psychologist...." Read more
"...The answer is framed for the lay reader, although at times the prose becomes dense and reads more like scholarly article than a book for a general..." Read more
"This is how books should be written. The writing is dense, each sentence carries a lot of meaning and there are no wasted pages or fluff...." Read more
"...Both books are written in the same dense prose, with the same complex sentence structure, and assume a broad generalist background in the humanities..." Read more
Customers find the book interesting and valuable, providing valuable information and insights. They describe it as an exciting read that provides a convincing theory of what underlies the brain's creative relation to the world. The book provides an excellent overview of brain anatomy related to consciousness, connection, and scientific perspectives through poetic and scientific angles.
"...The book provides an excellent overview of brain anatomy related to consciousness, connection and communication between different parts of the brain..." Read more
"...This book's main strength is that it introduces some new points that weren't in _Bright Air Brilliant Fire_: The topic of degeneracy and the Global..." Read more
"This book is either unremarkable or remarkable, depending on wether you have read Edelmans previous work or not...." Read more
"...lot of room for individual variation, and it means that the brain is far more creative in its relation to the world than the computer model would..." Read more
Customers find the book worthwhile for understanding the subject area.
"...Its purpose is to present Edelman's theory. This book is okay. It is interesting. It presents some new points and extends Edelman's theory...." Read more
"...Well worth the reader's time in understanding the above subject area." Read more
"Tough going but worth the struggle..." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2023Consciousness is a complex topic and Edelman is easy to understand for a beginner psychologist. I loved this book in a college course so much I had to buy my own copy.
- Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2010In this concise and informative book, author Gerald Edelman, M.D., Ph.D., attempts to provide readers an understanding of his theory of consciousness based on scientific evidence rather than philosophical inquiry. Dr. Edelman, who won a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research applying Darwinian principles to his study of the diversity of antibodies, applies Darwinian principles of selection and variation to the nervous system. He is well-published in the topic of consciousness both in scholarly journals and in books such as Neural Darwinism (1987), Topobiology (1988), Remembered Present (1990), Bright Air, Brilliant Fire (1992), and A Universe of Consciousness (2000, written with Giulio Tononi). This book consists of 200 pages and is divided into a table of contents including subtitles, 12 chapters, a useful glossary, an index, and a rather limited bibliography.
The book, appropriately, opens with a poem by Emily Dickinson which describes the brain as "wider than the Sky," "deeper than the sea," and "just the weight of God." In this way Dr. Edelman affirms that to explain consciousness is no easy task, but it is nonetheless the task which he undertakes, and he mostly succeeds. The most basic premise on which Dr. Edelman's theory rests is that consciousness can be explained via scientific inquiry. He attempts to answer the question: "How can the firing of neurons give rise to subjective sensations, thoughts, and emotions?" The answer is framed for the lay reader, although at times the prose becomes dense and reads more like scholarly article than a book for a general audience. Still, the contents of the book are interesting enough to encourage the reader to push past the dense portions. The book provides an excellent overview of brain anatomy related to consciousness, connection and communication between different parts of the brain, the causality between the nervous system and consciousness, and the neurological differences between non-conscious activities and consciousness.
In the first brief chapter of the book, Dr. Edelman defines what he means by "consciousness" by outlining some of the key properties which his theory attempts to explain, such as that it is continuous, continually changing, not exhaustive, and integrative. Dr. Edelman also explains that consciousness as a process is the "dynamic accomplishment of the distributed activities of neurons in many different areas of the brain." This quote, indeed, is a very neat summary of his view and is representative of his writing style.
The first section of the book consists of a brief lesson on the anatomy of the brain focusing primarily on the thalamus, cortex, brain stem, basal ganglia and the various interactions between these regions. Special attention is focused on re-entrant pathways between the thalamus and cortex as Dr. Edelman asserts that it was the development of these connections that allowed the development of consciousness by allowing organisms to integrate present inputs from the environment with memory (neuronal memory) of past events and link the two via categorization. Additionally, Dr. Edelman explains Neural Darwinism (more specifically the theory of neuronal group selection, TNGS) which essentially states that due to the extreme variation in brain chemistry and pathways, a path must be selected, and the paths that are selected are based on value-systems from the brain stem. Essentially, neuronal or genetic memories of what is good and bad for the organism drive the selection of pathways via re-entrant pathways connecting the thalamus to the cortex. Thus, consciousness results from this never-ending selection of pathways at each instant in time driven by value-systems from the anterior brain. Dr. Edelman systematically explains this concept by linking the functions of the above-mentioned brain systems to Dr. Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection.
While most of the book focuses on primary consciousness and a thorough explanation thereof, the latter part is dedicated to explaining higher order consciousness. According to Dr. Edelman, "primary consciousness is the state of being mentally aware of things in the world, of having mental images in the present." Conversely, higher order consciousness is "the ability to be conscious of being conscious, and it allows the recognition by a thinking subject of his or her own acts and affections." Thus, only an organism with higher order consciousness has a concept of past and future and can plan accordingly. Dr. Edelman asserts that only humans and some higher primates (to a lesser degree) have higher order consciousness. Rather than really explaining a neurological basis for higher order consciousness, Dr. Edelman just states that like primary consciousness, it was evolved. He also hypothesizes that higher order consciousness probably stems from the ability to formulate language and develop a semantic system. Instead of delving into the highly interesting topics of identity and the mind-body problem as implied by the titles of his last two chapters, Dr. Edelman seems to avoid the titles of these chapters and really just summarizes his theory of consciousness.
Overall, Dr. Edelman accomplishes his goal of concisely and clearly explaining his theory of consciousness. However, it must be noted that some of the language in the book would be difficult for someone not accustomed to reading some scientific academic literature. Additionally, it can be vexing that Dr. Edelman does not seem to like recognizing other researchers' work within his text. Even his bibliography seems quite short given the range of information he covers. He seems to pose his theories and hypotheses as facts and does not recognize other biologically based theories of consciousness, which do exist. Additionally, he does not really address criticism of his theory. Still, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an interesting and overall enjoyable account of a brilliant scientist's theory of one of the most interesting topics in philosophy, psychology, and now neurology.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2011This is how books should be written. The writing is dense, each sentence carries a lot of meaning and there are no wasted pages or fluff. This book needs to be read carefully but Edelman's view of consciousness is worth the effort. I've read too many philosophical books on consciousness that seem to spend most of their time arguing about the meaning of words instead of consciousness itself. This is a much more focused approach and the author talks about the actual topic at hand concretely. This is probably the best book on consciousness I've read
- Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2018As of this writing, I have read two of Gerald Edelman's books: This one, _Wider Than the Sky_, which seems to be a reworking of _A Universe of Consciousness_ (2000), and _Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_(1992), which is a non-technical summary of his books _Neural Darwinism_(1987), and _The Remembered Present_(1990).
I thought this was supposed to be a book for the general public. But a member of the general public probably will be unable to make heads or tales out of this book. The intended audience appears to be non-scientists, but specifically non-scientists who have a broad general background including exposure to the sciences and the humanities, with a large vocabulary, and graduate-school level reading skills. And, as I will explain, a member of the public who already has some familiarity with Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS).
_Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_ has the same apparent intended audience. _Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_ is a more methodical, didactic book, presenting Edelman's TNGS, the main part of which is Neural Darwinism. That book details the main points of the author's theory more fully and gives support to his assertions with references to other articles and books. It contains an extensive bibliography. The main point of that book is to present the actual theory.
This book, _Wider Than the Sky_, is less methodically structured, almost to the point where it seems randomly organized. _Wider Than the Sky_ includes brief descriptions of Edelman's earlier ideas. This book puts the emphasis on arguing that the theory is appropriate for description of consciousness emergence, and also on how the theory relates to ideas of a few philosophers or psychologists. _Wider Than the Sky_ places less emphasis on the specifics of the theory and more emphasis on its application.
This book's main strength is that it introduces some new points that weren't in _Bright Air Brilliant Fire_: The topic of degeneracy and the Global Core hypothesis. This book also seems to articulate how value-category systems form memories a bit more clearly than the earlier book. Written 12 years later than the earlier book, it remarks on the potential of research involving newer brain imaging technology.
Additionally, in this book Edelman describes the relationship between neurological function and consciousness emergence with the terms C and C' but it is unclear how he arrives at that relationship. All he says is that according to his theory, it works that way. This is an illustration of the main weakness of this book. Due to not being supported by evidence, footnotes, or a bibliography, every statement Edelman makes has the same weight. This book contains no footnotes or bibliography, and is, for the most part, unclear about which of the author's statements have valid support and which are speculative.
Both books are written in the same dense prose, with the same complex sentence structure, and assume a broad generalist background in the humanities and sciences. Despite covering fewer topics than _Wider Than the Sky_, I learned a lot more from _Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_ than I learned from _Wider Than the Sky_.
Edelman's books seem to form one continuous interconnected elaboration and refinement of his TNGS. This book is an extension of the previous one. Had I not previously read _Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_, then _Wider Than the Sky_ would have been a less rewarding read. So much so that I see why some other reviewers' comments suggest they were unable to comprehend this book at all.
I came away from _Bright Air Brilliant Fire_ thinking of Edelman's model as being so well-thought out, so well-presented, that it must certainly be the one theory that will eventually prove to be the most accurate and useful description of consciousness emergence ever proposed. Reading that book made me realize the depth and beauty of Edelman's ideas. Reading that book made me view Edelman as a singular intellectual genius.
I came away from this book thinking Edelman had written yet another of those books consisting of an eminent scientist arrogantly blathering on until his reader stops paying attention to what the author is saying and starts being annoyed by how the author is saying it.
I did get something out of this book. The Dynamic Core and degeneracy are both meaningful new ideas to me. But I don't think I would have gotten much out of this book had I not first read the other book. Maybe if I reread this I will get more from it. But I have no inclination to reread this. If anything, reading it motivated me to reread the earlier book. The earlier book is sheer genius. Its purpose is to present Edelman's theory. This book is okay. It is interesting. It presents some new points and extends Edelman's theory. It is, however, not as significant or meaningful as the other book. I would suggest reading _Bright Air, Brilliant Fire_ first, before attempting this book.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2014Edelman is in graceful state of mind when he write his book "Wider than the Sky: The phenomenal gift of consciousness".
Top reviews from other countries
- PriyaReviewed in India on June 22, 2019
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Mom loved it
- whisperReviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2014
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
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