Oxford University Press. 1983

 
How did human consciousness  evolve? Why are people so much cleverer than other animals? What is the basis of the human capacity  for insight? Why do we dream,  keep pets, go to the cinema? Is there a biological  basis for art? Why do people  believe in ghosts? What is the origin of religious ecstasy? What lies behind the suicidal nuclear arms race?

 

In Consciousness Regained  Nicholas Humphrey  brings together a selection of his penetrating  essays about the human condition, adding  an introductory  chapter and a substantial new section on self-knowledge,  In particular  he examines the phenomenon of consciousness  and helps to regain for serious study this most basic if most perplexing of subjects.

 

Dr Nicholas Humphrey, until 1982 Assistant Director of Cambridge's  Sub-Department  of Animal  Behaviour, is an experimental  psychologist. In 1981 he gave the final Bronowski  Lecture on BBC Television, 'Four Minutes to Midnight', which  appears in this book, He is the presenterof the forthcoming television series 'The Inner Eye'.

 

 “As rich and captivating as any work of fiction” The Economist