Neither Ghost nor Machine: The Emergence and Nature of Selves

Jeremy Sherman

Published by Columbia University Press 2017

Neither Ghost nor Machine

The Emergence and Nature of Selves

Jeremy Sherman
Preface by: Terrence Deacon

https://doi.org/10.7312/sher17332

Overview
Contents

About this book

Jeremy Sherman distills Terrence Deacon’s breakthrough natural science hypothesis for the emergence of agents and agency, selves and aims in an otherwise aimless universe. The theory cuts a new path through the dualistic spirit vs. mechanism debate, unifying the hard and soft sciences and suggesting new solutions to philosophical mysteries.

Author / Editor information

Jeremy Sherman is a decision theorist researching and writing about choice from the origin of life to everyday living. He teaches college courses across the social sciences and blogs for Psychology Today. He has studied and collaborated with Terrence Deacon for twenty years.

Terrence Deacon is professor of biological anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain (1997) and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter (2011).

Reviews

Loyal D. Rue, Luther College:
The persistent Western dualism of mind and matter is finally done for, and the burden of proof has shifted. Thanks to books like Neither Ghost Nor Machine, inspired by the work of Terrence Deacon, we are now crossing the threshold to a brave new self-understanding

Bruce H. Weber, coauthor of Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection:
Jeremy Sherman lucidly explicates the paradigm-changing vision of Terrence Deacon, which addresses the mysteries of the origin of living systems from the nonliving and the emergence of mind and purpose in a nature that is still the the process of evolving.

Jessica Riskin, author of The Restless Clock: A History of the Centuries-Long Argument over What Makes Living Things Tick:
Neither Ghost nor Machine is an eloquent manifesto in the movement to reclaim questions of purpose and agency for science. Presenting Terrence Deacon’s account of the natural emergence of living agents, Jeremy Sherman casts aside the stale, old dichotomies to show us a new way of thinking scientifically about life.

Ursula Goodenough, Washington University in St. Louis, author of The Sacred Depths of Nature:
For those of us who call ourselves religious/spiritual naturalists, this book is sure to become an instant classic. Its narrative of how living beings are and came to be is rigorous, accessible, and lyrical, and will greatly deepen our affinity with the natural world and with one another.

Daniel Ellsberg, behavioral economist, Right Livelihood Award recipient:
Finally! A breakthrough approach to fundamental questions that have gone unanswered for so long that many forget to ask them. Fascinating, profound!

Owen Flanagan, James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy, Duke University, author of Consciousness Reconsidered:
When the Big Bang banged all there was was just the stuff of basic physics, fermions, bosons, and such. There was neither life nor mind. Now there is life all over the place and some of it is conscious. How is that possible? How could such things as life and mind emerge? Jeremy Sherman has written a clear, clever, witty guide to the new science of emergence championed by Terrence Deacon. This is a philosophical treasure trove that explains how novelty emerges without explanatory gaps and violations of the laws of nature.

Kaja Perina, editor in chief, Psychology Today:
Neither Ghost nor Machine reckons with the most profound questions one can ask about the nature of the self and of life on earth. It is the work of a fiercely inquisitive and original mind.

Stuart Kauffman, MacArthur Fellow, author of At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity:
In Neither Ghost nor Machine, Jeremy Sherman takes on a central mystery: How did the universe get from matter to mattering? Whence purpose? Whence selves? These are topics too easily ignored in our rush to find the molecular stuff of life and not the organizational "what is” of life. With this fine book, and that of Deacon, we are well launched.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
FOREWORD Terrence Deacon Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
I OVERVIEW
1. THE MYSTERY OF PURPOSE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. THE BIGGEST MYSTERY WE EVER IGNORE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3. DEACON’S SOLUTION IN BRIEF Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
II FRAMING THE MYSTERY
4. TWO SOURCES OF CHANGE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
5. SELVES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
6. TWO GHOSTS, TWO MACHINES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	50
7. INTERPRETATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	56
8. AIMS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
9. EVOLUTION’S LIMITED LIMITING ROLE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
III DEAD ENDS, LIVE CLUES
10. THE HISTORY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
11. EVOLUTIONARY THEORY’S ELUSIVE SELF Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
12. INFORMATION ABOUT NOTHING FOR ANYONE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
13. THE ENGINEERED GHOSTS IN OUR MACHINES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
14. SMALL IS DUBIOUS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
IV GROUNDING A SOLUTION
15. PROCESSES OF EMERGENT ELIMINATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
16. SECOND LAW IRREGULARITY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
17. EMERGENT REGULARIZATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
18. EMERGENT REGULARIZATION VS. EMERGENT SELF-REGENERATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
19. OTHER EMERGENT REGULARIZATION DYNAMICS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
20. COUPLED REGULARIZATION PROCESSES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
V DEACON’S SOLUTION
21. AUTOGENS: SELF-GENERATORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
22. EVOLVED AUTOGENS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	172
23. WHERE IS THE SELF? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
24. THE CONSEQUENCES OF SELF-REGENERATION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
VI THE INTERPRETING SELF
25. CODES, SIGNS, INTERPRETERS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
26. KINDS OF SIGNS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
VII IMPLICATIONS
27. A CONSTRAINT-BASED APPROACH TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
28. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FREE WILL DEBATE? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
29. MAKING SCIENCE SAFE FOR VALUE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	256
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	267
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	289

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 11 b&w illustrations

eBook

Published: July 9, 2018
ISBN: 9780231545990