Why do memories fade? Why do we lose our tempers? Why do fools fall in love? This work explores the nature and history of the human mind. It looks at the computations and evolutions, and then considers how the mind lets us see, think, feel, interact, and pursue higher callings like art, religion and philosophy.

Revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming that tautology and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and artificial intelligence.

A leading expert of the neurophysiology of emotions, Damasio shows how our consciousness arose out of the development of emotion. At its core human consciousness is consciousness of the feeling and experiencing self.

The author of this text offers a theory of consciousness. He proposes that conscious experience must be understood as an irreducible entity similar to such physical properties as time, mass, and space that exists at a fundamental level and cannot be understood as the sum of its parts.

Studies the spontaneous and reflective dimension of human experience. To create common ground between mind in science and mind in experience, the authors develop a dialogue between cognitive science and Buddhist meditative psychology, placing it in relation to such traditions as phenomenology.