The human mind is the middle kingdom, the joint progeny of brain and culture. The brain contributed a source of raw biological intelligence with a potential for being rewired for symbolic communication. Culture – especially in its technological aspect, but also in its key role in the invention of languages – did the rewiring.
MERLIN DONALD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. A cognitive neuroscientist with a background in philosophy, he is the author of many scientific papers, and two influential books: Origins of the Modern Mind: Three stages in the evolution of culture and cognition (Harvard, 1991), and A Mind So Rare: The evolution of human consciousness (Norton, 2001). He is a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the Royal Society of Canada, and the World Academy of Art and Science.
