alan@sdcrdcf.UUCP (06/27/84)
<Can Canadian rats develop cancer from reading too much?>
Can someone tell me the title, etc. of a book?
The book came out about 1976. The author contends that man only recently
became aware of his own existance. He uses the writings of Homer, and
the demise of the Incas or Aztecs at the hands of the Spanish, to
support his thesis.
Alan Algustyniak (sdccsu3!sdcrdcf!alan)
(ucbvax!ucla-vax!sdcrdcf!alan) (allegra!sdcrdcf!alan)
(decvax!trw-unix!sdcrdcf!alan) (cbosgd!sdcrdcf!alan)citrin@ucbvax.UUCP (Wayne Citrin) (06/29/84)
> Can someone tell me the title, etc. of a book? > The book came out about 1976. The author contends that man only recently > became aware of his own existance. He uses the writings of Homer, and > the demise of the Incas or Aztecs at the hands of the Spanish, to > support his thesis. The book is "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" by Julian Jaynes. Despite the forbidding title, it's a very readable well-written book. The author's thesis is that consciousness is a relatively recent phenomenon and that before about 3000 years ago it generally didn't exist but rather man took commands from disembodied voices which originated in the right hemisphere of the brain, which were the origin of gods. He claims that cultural influences forced a new reorganization of the brain which resulted in consciousness. He uses historical and archaeological sources to support his arguments as well as evidence from psychology and physiology. Sometimes the arguments are kind of weak, but they are always thought provoking. Wayne Citrin (ucbvax!citrin)