The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are

The author has to be praised for his intro for the first page only. A different approach .

Certain chapters were intresting on embodied cognition but to much speculation!

The biological mind is an examination of the brain and how to think about it contextually. Almost all of us, especially those not studying the brain as a career, default to thinking about our uniqueness as a consequence of our brains. The Biological Mind takes a more balanced approach to the subject and describes how the brain is but a component of a biological system that one cannot easily disentangle. If one wants a better context of the brain as a component of a biological system rather than a view of the brain as a computational structure, this has good content.The book starts rather oddly with a discussion of culinary dishes involving brain and their relatively low frequency. I was concerned I had started reading the wrong book, but the author used it as a starting point on how we think about the brain differently than other organs. The author starts with describing neurons and their density and network structures and then poses the question of what makes the brain different. Most of us assume our complexity comes from our neurons but the author throws out the idea that perhaps some of our cognitive excellence comes from glial cells. He then goes on to discuss how mice injected with other biological matter (not neurons) have 30% improved cognitive abilities for many tasks. The point of all of this is not to give an answer to what has led to human differentiated cognition but rather that the brain is part of a biological system and should be views in that context. The author goes on to question many assumptions in mental health diagnosis. Issues of nature vs nurture are discussed and the idea that our mind is our brain is prodded at continually, reminding the reader that we haven't figured out exactly where our "mind" is. It quite hard in such a self-referential topic to get to the bottom of anything but one comes to the more well rounded conclusion that our biological system is complicated and the idea that the brain is the center of everything and the origin of our complete humanness is likely untrue. That being said the author over-emphasizes the point. It is an over-estimation to put the brain on the pedestal we often do, but it is not disputed that if the brain were removed, our "mind" would be most damaged over any other organ so to a certain extent this is all just about matter of degree. The author ends with a discussion of futurists who's goal is to enhance the brain and extend its life and the risks of such ambitions. There are some ideas which are similar to Homo Deus and the book brings up questions of fairness and humanness as well. The book ends with an interesting chapter of what the experience of a brain in a vat might be, he describes it in the first person and its fairly dystopian. Nonetheless the author leaves the reader with the impression that the mind cannot exist in isolation to the body and this is projected through his brain in a vat story.All in all the biological mind gives the reader a good context of how the brain is a component of a biological system for which we cannot easily disentangle. Furthermore who we are is more than just our brains and we shouldn't forget that as there are many other essential aspects of our biology that are a function of our environment, both social and relating to stimulus, so assuming an independent mind is plain wrong. Entertaining and understandable, worthwhile reading for those interested in the mind and brain and more.

Must read for a Neuroscientist.Gives good insights to the history of brain science and instigate a holistic approach.

Just when you thought it was all about the brain, then this masterful book comes along to remind us that all of the body is communicating with the mind and there are neurons in our stomach that are doing their work too and we are complex beings. So worth the read. Well done Alan, well done.