Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem - In Defence of Interaction (Hardcover, New)

Based upon the Kenan Lectures that Karl Popper delivered at Emory University, "Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem" raises problems connected with human freedom, creativity, rationality, and the relationship between human beings and their actions. These are what Popper calls "big issues" - too big for easy answers, but too important to be ignored. In these lectures, and in the discussions that follow them, Sir Karl develops a theory of body-mind interaction. This theory involves evolutionary emergence, human language, and that realm of autonomous products of the human mind which Popper calls "World 3". According to Popper, consciousness emerged in the course of evolution as a kind of control system for the body, like a driver is a control system for a car. Objective knowledge - the kind of knowledge that is found in books and libraries - then emerged in the course of evolution as a higher level control system for the mind. Simply put, objective knowledge is the mind's control system for critical problem solving. In this way, full consciousness - the kind of consciousness that humans can have - is anchored in World 3 and is closely linked to human language, problems, and theories.