Thin Bone Vault : The Origin of Human Intelligence.
Title:
Thin Bone Vault : The Origin of Human Intelligence.
Author:
Menger, Fredric M.
ISBN:
9781848163379
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (313 pages)
Contents:
CONTENTS -- Acknowledgment -- Section 1. Evolution -- Chapter 1. Introductory Remarks -- Chapter 2. Darwin and Natural Selection -- Chapter 3. Darwin Analyzed -- Part 1. The Evolutionary "Story" -- Part 2. Darwin as a Scientific Theory -- Part 3. Reductionism -- Part 4. The Wonder of It All -- Part 5. Entropy -- Part 6. The Gap Problem -- Part 7. Complexity -- Part 8. Molecular Evolution -- Chapter 4. Lamarck -- Section 2. The Thin Bone Vault -- Chapter 5. Introduction -- Chapter 6. Definition of Intelligence -- Part 1. A Multifaceted Trait -- Part 2. Linguistic Intelligence -- Part 3. Musical Intelligence -- Part 4. Mathematical Intelligence -- Chapter 7. A Brief History of the Mind -- Chapter 8. Population -- Natural Limitations -- Self-Imposed Limitations -- Chapter 9. Culture -- Chapter 10. Animal Intelligence -- Section 3. Evolutionary Potential -- Chapter 11. Introduction -- Chapter 12. Elementary Genetics -- Chapter 13. Gene Variability, Examples -- Part 1. Snapdragons -- Part 2. Sleeping Sickness -- Part 3. Immune Diversity -- Part 4. Globins -- Part 5. Heat Stress -- Chapter 14. Directed Mutations -- Chapter 15. Genetics and Intelligence -- Section 4. Evolution of Intelligence, an Epigenetic Model -- Chapter 16. Introduction -- Chapter 17. Epigenetics -- Chapter 18. The Cranial Feedback Mechanism -- Postulate 1: Brain and germ cell tissues interact by means of chemical messengers. -- Postulate 2: Mental activity stimulates the production of messenger. -- Postulate 3: Chemical messengers, produced by mental activity, induce changes within the germ cells that are passed on to the next generation. -- Postulate 4: The epigenetic changes in germ cells induced by mental activity facilitate mental activity in ensuing generations. -- Section 5. Bibliography -- Index.
Abstract:
This book delves into one of the greatest riddles perplexing modern science: "Why are humans so smart?" In a format understandable even by the non-expert, the author investigates the origins of human intelligence, starting with classical Darwinian concepts. Thus, the strengths and beauty of natural selection are presented with many examples taken from natural history. Common criticisms of Darwin, from scientists and non-scientists alike, are confronted and shown to be either inconclusive or outright false.The author then launches into a discussion of human intelligence, the most important feature of human evolution, and how it cannot be fully explained by mutational selection. Modern humans are smarter than what is demanded by our evolutionary experience as hunter-gatherers. The difficulty lies in the inability of natural selection to answer the following question: how can a complex set of genes, controlling expensive traits with little immediate benefit, come into permanent existence within a short time period in every member of a small population (which was dispersed and geographically isolated over a huge planet) which had a low reproductive output and a low mutation rate?The book concludes with a speculative epigenetic theory of intelligence that does not require DNA mutations as a source of evolution. Although the book is comprehensible by anyone with a college education, this last section in particular should intrigue both layman and expert alike.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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Electronic Access:
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