Dreaming Souls Sleep, Dreams and the Evolution of the Conscious Mind

by Flanagan, Owen

• ISBN13: 9780195126877
• ISBN10: 0195126874
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-11-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

What, if anything, do dreams tell us about ourselves? What is the relationship between types of sleep and types of dreams? Does dreaming serve any purpose? Or are dreams simply meaningless mental noise--"unmusical fingers wandering over the piano keys"? With expertise in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience, Owen Flanagan is uniquely qualified to answer these questions. In this groundbreaking work, he provides both an accessible survey of the latest research on sleep and dreams and a compelling new theory about the nature and function of dreaming. Flanagan argues that while sleep has a clear biological function and adaptive value, dreams are merely side effects, "free riders," irrelevant from an evolutionary point of view. But dreams are hardly unimportant. Flanagan argues that dreams are self-expressive, the result of our need to find or to create meaning, even when we're sleeping. Written with remarkable insight, Dreaming Souls offers a fascinating new way of apprehending one of the oldest mysteries of mental life.

Author Biography

Owen Flanagan is the James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Chair, Professor Psychology-Experimental, and Professor of Neurobiology, Duke University. He is the author of The Science of Mind, Consciousness Reconsidered, Varieties of Moral Personality and Self Expressions (OUP).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Prologue: ``To Sleep: Perchance to Dream''	1	(6)
Heart Throbs	7	(24)
The Dreaming Mind	31	(34)
Sleepy Heads	65	(28)
Dreams: The Spandrels of Sleep	93	(34)
Self-Expression in Dreams	127	(36)
Philosophical Perplexities	163	(22)
Epilogue: Here Comes the Sun	185	(12)
Selected Bibliography	197	(8)
Index	205