The Human Place in Nature: Evolution, Context and Choice

Explore 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

The Human Place in Nature offers a science-based bottom-up approach to our own conscious worldview by seeing it through the eyes of others. It 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.

Key Features

How do animals experience the world? Human ecologist John Schooneveldt uncovers an understanding of animal minds. The book formulates a hypothesis for the evolution of consciousness, including a discussion of the origin of technological innovation. It provides a rationale for the ecology of mind and proposes a theory of the evolution of language.

A mind-expanding exploration of consciousness that outlines the science of experience and how it influences choice, explaining the role of context and choice with respect to human ecology

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Release date

Audiobook: 8 July 2025