The crucible of consciousness : an integrated theory of mind and brain

265 Pages·2009·0.704 MB·English

by  Zoltan Torey, Daniel C. Dennett

The Crucible of
Consciousness
An Integrated Theory of
Mind and Brain
Zoltan Torey
foreword by Daniel C. Dennett
The Crucible of Consciousness

The Crucible of Consciousness
An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain
Zoltan Torey
with a foreword by Daniel C. Dennett
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
© Zoltan Torey 1999
First MIT Press edition, 2009
First published in 1999 by Oxford University Press, 253 Normanby Road, South Mel-
bourne, Australia.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any elec-
tronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
MIT Press books may be purchased at special quantity discounts for business or sales
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write to Special Sales Department, The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge,
MA 02142.
This book was set in Stone by Binghamton Valley Composition in Quark, and was
printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Torey, Zoltan.
The crucible of consciousness : an integrated theory of mind and brain / Zoltan
Torey.—1st MIT Pess ed.
p. cm.
“A Bradford book.”
Originally published: Melbourne ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1999. With
new foreword.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-262-51284-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Consciousness. I. Title.
BF311.T655 2009
153—dc22
2008041421
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my wife
Margaret Dawn

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword by Daniel C. Dennett xi
Preface xiii
Perspective 1
A The Problem 1
B The Path to the Solution 15
C Some Technical Aspects 18
1 The Emergence of the Human Brain 25
A The Upgrading of the Prehuman Brain 25
B Modifications That Underlie Language 32
C The Internal Representation of the Outside World 35
2 Adaptive Changes for Speech and Thought 39
A Dual Excitation and the Oscillation of Attention 39
B The Building Blocks of Language 43
3 The Evolution of Language 53
A The Breakthrough to Protolanguage 53
B Secondary Language Evolution 59
C Using the Language Instrument 66
D Language and the Limits of Abstraction 72
4 More about Language 77
A The Perceptual Basis of Language 77
B The Acquisition of Language by the Child 84
C Ape Talk: A Tip without an Iceberg 87
5 Self-Accessibility 95
A Problems of Self-Detection 95
B Elements of Self-Detection 102
viii Contents
6 Reflection: The Key to Human Awareness 109
A Double-Stranded Reentrance 109
B The Mechanism of Reflective Awareness 115
C Self-Awareness 125
7 The Mind-System 129
A The New Identity: Brain to Mind 129
B The Alchemy of Self-Deception 135
C Problems with Self-Conceptualization 141
D The “Freedom” of the System: Fact and Fiction about the Mind 147
8 The Mind versus the Computer 155
A Formalism and the Logic of Misconstruction 155
B Model Formation and the Role of Semantics 164
C Society and the Shaping of the Mind 167
9 Evolution: The Model of the Loaded Dice 175
A The Watershed of Insights 175
B Prejudice and Counterprejudice 178
10 Between the Quantum and the Cosmos 189
A A Range of Perspectives 189
B Light at the End of the Tunnel 201
Notes 211
References 213
Bibliography 219
Glossary 231
Index 243
Acknowledgments
It is with real pleasure that I acknowledge my debt to a small group of quite
special people. I want to express my appreciation for my father’s generosity
of spirit, for his peerless humanity. Its undiminished glow warmed my
youth, its light accompanies me.
I want to thank my loyal friend David Lenton, who for more than
twenty years read and recorded for me, enabling me in spite of my blind-
ness, to range across the literature of many disciplines. Without David’s
amassing this large body of essential information, this book could not have
been written I acknowledge my debt to the late John Falconer. For years we
read together, his friendship broadened my outlook and enriched my life. I
also want to thank my dear friend Charles Moess, whose support and en-
couragement has been a source of strength.
A special place is to be reserved for my long-time friend Nicholas
Tschoegl of Pasadena, California, who with his outstanding intellect,
knowledge and experience, generously undertook the task of editing this
text. Sophie and Nick Tschoegl’s friendship and hospitality during our re-
peated stays in the United States, was a much appreciated aspect of this en-
deavour.
Heartfelt thanks go to my dear friend Jean Cooney for her practical ad-
vice and tireless constructive labours in streamlining the text for this MIT
Press edition and for causing this project in the first place to fall into the
right hands, in the right way and at the right time.
Then there is Professor David Chalmers, who, as the Director of the Cen-
ter for Consciousness Studies invited me to be one of the keynote speakers
at the 2004 Biennial Conference in Tucson, Arizona, and Professor Dan
Dennett who, following on our serendipitous meeting at the conference,
gave me his generous support and was instrumental in finding the right
publisher for this work.
I remember the many enjoyable hours my wife and I spent with Chris