Peter Godfrey-Smith Bücher

Die Begegnung mit Kraken in den Tiefen des Meeres wird zum Ausgangspunkt dieser faszinierend erzählten Evolutionsgeschichte des Bewusstseins, die sich unabhängig voneinander zweimal ereignete: Kraken und Wirbeltiere haben gemeinsame Vorfahren, und doch entwickelte sich ihre Intelligenz völlig unabhängig voneinander. Godfrey-Smith geht der Frage nach, wie Oktopusse so intelligent werden konnten, und welcher Art ihre Intelligenz ist, die nicht in einem zentralen Gehirn steckt, sondern in ihren Tentakeln. In der Begegnung mit ihnen finden wir mehr über uns selbst heraus - und wenn es einen ganz anderen, einen »außerirdischen« Geist gibt, dem wir begegnen können, dann finden wir ihn in den Oktopussen. »Peter Godfrey-Smiths Buch bringt uns das Bewusstsein der Cephalodien und die Geschichte unseres eigenen Bewusstseins näher, Tentakel für Tentakel.« - Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair »Wenn das Philosophie ist, dann funktioniert es überaus gut: Peter Godfrey-Smith ist nie dogmatisch, aber erschreckend scharfsinnig.« - Carl Safina, The New York Times Book Review

Metazoa ist nichts weniger als eine Evolutionsgeschichte des Bewusstseins oder, umfassender noch, des Geistes. Anhand von wissenschaftlichen Experimenten, Ausflügen in die Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Anekdoten über eigensinnige Tiere und Beobachtungen, die er bei seinen zahlreichen Tauchgängen gemacht hat, ergründet Peter Godfrey-Smith, wie sich im evolutionären Zusammenspiel Körper und Geist herausbilden. Seine Erkenntnis: Es sind die Erfahrungen der Tiere in ihrer Umwelt, die sowohl den Aufbau des Gehirns als auch die Entstehung eines Bewusstseins vorantreiben. Von empfindungsfähigen Einzellern über wissbegierige Krebse bis hin zu träumenden Tintenfischen: Nicht in einem singulären Ereignis tritt das Bewusstsein ins Leben, sondern entfaltet sich Stufe um Stufe, und zwar stets im engen Wechselspiel mit den vielfältigen Formen, die das Leben seinen Umwelten abgerungen hat. Peter Godfrey-Smith liefert den Entwurf einer Philosophie, die uns daran erinnert, dass das Leben und damit auch das Denken im Wasser seinen Anfang nahm.

The book presents a new way of understanding Darwinism and evolution by natural selection, combining work in biology, philosophy, and other fields. It gives new criticisms of gene-centered views of evolution, and presents a new framework for understanding the evolution of complex organisms and societies.

Exploring the interplay between intelligence and environmental complexity, this book connects the philosophy of mind with broader externalist explanations. It poses critical questions about developing a philosophical theory of the mind in relation to environmental properties and examines the implications of understanding the internal through external perspectives. The author adopts a biological lens to investigate cognition's role in navigating complexity, drawing on historical insights from Dewey and Spencer, while engaging with contemporary evolutionary theory. This work is aimed at philosophers, evolutionary biologists, psychologists, and historians of science.

How does science work? Does it tell us what the world is "really" like? What makes it different from other ways of understanding the universe? In Theory and Reality, Peter Godfrey-Smith addresses these questions by taking the reader on a grand tour of more than a hundred years of debate about science. The result is a completely accessible introduction to the main themes of the philosophy of science. Examples and asides engage the beginning student, a glossary of terms explains key concepts, and suggestions for further reading are included at the end of each chapter. Like no other text in this field, Theory and Reality combines a survey of recent history of the philosophy of science with current key debates that any beginning scholar or critical reader can follow. The second edition is thoroughly updated and expanded by the author with a new chapter on truth, simplicity, and models in science.

From the human being to the octopus, the shark to the humble sea squirt, all animals are physical beings made up entirely of cells. And yet they can think, to varying degrees. How did this come to be? How did a mind first grow from the matter that is the body? And at what stage did that clump of cells become a 'self'? In Metazoa, Peter Godfrey-Smith, author of the bestselling Other Minds looks beyond the octopus to the complexity of the whole animal kingdom, exploring the origins of consciousness and grappling with the greatest mystery of evolution. Metazoa (the biological term encompassing all animals), covers, with various degrees of detail, the main stages in animal evolution: the long period of life before animals, the enigmatic period known as the Ediacaran, in which the first animal fossils were laid down, then the Cambrian, the period that rapidly gave rise to most of the familiar animal forms. Then, in a few distinct evolutionary lines, the appearance of bodies with a set of unusual capacities: bodies with eyes and other senses that can track objects in space, bodies that can freely move and bodies with tools for the manipulation of objects. And the bringing together of these capacities would have pivotal consequences for the evolution of the brain and hence the evolution of consciousness. There is much to marvel at in the natural world. But take a moment to wonder at the fact that we can marvel at all.

'Brilliant' Guardian Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (March) SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?

In this witty and stylish companion to Englishness Sunday Times columnist Godfrey Smith takes us on a leisurely but perceptive tour of all that he holds dear in England and the English. It is very much an informal ramble, as if in the company of an old friend. He treats us to a display of sparkling and knowledgeable comments on our national life from Churchill to pubs, Elgar to Rugby, Bertie Wooster to George Orwell, British beef to the National Lottery and from fish and chips to Evelyn Waugh.

The trial of the 'Grenada 17' for the assassination of Maurice Bishop, the popular leader of the Grenada Revolution, left many unanswered questions. Nearly four decades later this book sheds new and credible light on the tragedy which unfolded on that fateful day in October 1983 and the chilling sequence of events that precipitated them.

An essential introduction to the philosophy of biology This is a concise, comprehensive, and accessible introduction to the philosophy of biology written by a leading authority on the subject. Geared to philosophers, biologists, and students of both, the book provides sophisticated and innovative coverage of the central topics and many of the latest developments in the field. Emphasizing connections between biological theories and other areas of philosophy, and carefully explaining both philosophical and biological terms, Peter Godfrey-Smith discusses the relation between philosophy and science; examines the role of laws, mechanistic explanation, and idealized models in biological theories; describes evolution by natural selection; and assesses attempts to extend Darwin's mechanism to explain changes in ideas, culture, and other phenomena. Further topics include functions and teleology, individuality and organisms, species, the tree of life, and human nature. The book closes with detailed, cutting-edge treatments of the evolution of cooperation, of information in biology, and of the role of communication in living systems at all scales. Authoritative and up-to-date, this is an essential guide for anyone interested in the important philosophical issues raised by the biological sciences.