The Human Place in Nature: Evolution, Context and Choice

This book explores a new approach to understanding the evolution of mind and consciousness by examining the perceptual abilities of animals and the way they experience their world. It offers a science-based, bottom-up approach to our own conscious worldview by seeing it through the eyes of others. Human ecologist John Schooneveldt emphasizes the role of context in evolution and the way animals internalize and engage with the contextual properties of their world that are meaningful for them. The core argument is that a context, which is subjective and comprised of the perceptual capacities, offers new insights into the evolution of mind. Rather than seeing biological evolution in terms of the emergence of mindless forms and cultural evolution as the emergence of disembodied minds, the book seeks to integrate these two perspectives through the rigorous mapping of contexts.

This book: reveals an understanding of animal minds; formulates a hypothesis for the evolution of consciousness; includes a discussion of the origin of technological innovation; provides a rationale for the ecology of mind; proposes a theory of the evolution of language; outlines the science of experience and how it influences choice; and explains the role of context and choice with respect, especially to human ecology.