One of the world\'s leading experts on mind and brain takes us on an expedition that reveals a new view of what makes us who we are.
The result, Ledoux shows, is not a self but an ensemble of Being that subsumes our entire Human existence, both as individuals and as a species..
They cooperate continuously and underlie our capacity to live and experience ourselves as beings with a past, present, and future.
Together, Ledoux shows, these Four Realms make humans who and what we are.
Finally, the conscious realm allows its possessors to have inner experiences of, and thoughts about, the world.
These mental models are used to control a wide range of behaviors.
Some animals with nervous systems possess a cognitive realm, which allows the creation of internal representations of the world around them.
This neural component enables them to control their bodies with speed and precision unseen in other forms of life.
Animals, uniquely, supplement biological existence with a nervous system.
Hence, every living thing exists biologically.
The biological realm makes life possible.
He offers a new framework of who we are, theorizing Four Realms of existence--bodily, neural, cognitive, and conscious.
Joseph Ledoux argues that we have hit an epistemological wall--that ideas like the self are increasingly barriers to discovery and understanding.
Even in research, the notion of the self as somehow distinct from the rest of the organism persists.
Although modern science has largely eliminated this mind-body dualism, people still tend to imagine their minds as separate from their physical being.
But the mind is mental; it perceives, remembers, believes, feels, and imagines.
The body is physical--the source of aches and pains.
Humans have long thought of their bodies and minds as separate spheres of existence.
One of the world\'s leading experts on mind and brain takes us on an expedition that reveals a new view of what makes us who we are
