Reviews and Comments

Brett_PhilosopherZ

PhilosopherZ@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 year, 4 months ago

I am academically trained in Philosophy. My Ph.D. was on Selfhood, drawing upon Phenomenology and Embodied Cognition. My undergraduate work included Classical Civilizations, Humanities, and the History of Science. I am also a tabletop RPG GM for Castles and Crusades. He/Him.

Philosophy #RPG #Folklore #CastlesAndCrusades #Phenomenology #EmbodiedCognition #Medieval #History #ClassicalCivilizations #Humanities #HistoryOfScience #Self #Scotland #DoctorWho #DnD

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Steven Mithen: The prehistory of the mind (1996) 5 stars

Review of 'The prehistory of the mind' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I first discovered Steven Mithen’s The Prehistory of the Mind in 2007 when doing work on the philosophy of mind and philosophy of language. I found Mithen’s interdisciplinary approach as an archaeologist refreshing and new.

Revisiting the book after 15 years (and 26 years after it was originally published) I noticed that some of what we know about prehistoric humans has seen significant advancement and change in recent years and the new discoveries we have made in archaeology, psychology, and linguistics needs to be taken into account when reading this book decades later.

Additionally, Mithen himself has continued to evolve his thinking on this matter in such books as The Singing Neanderthals (where he emphasizes music as a fundamental component of human cognition).

All that being said, I think the book is still useful in its organization, writing, and large number of diagrams and illustrations that liven up and inform …