1. Introduction -- 2. Before bacteria and Bach -- 3. On the origin of reasons -- 4. Two strange inversions of reasoning -- 5. The evolution of understanding -- 6. What is information? -- 7. Darwinian spaces : an interlude -- 8. Brains made of brains -- 9. The role of words in cultural evolution --
The evolution of words -- 10. The meme's-eye point of view -- 11. What's wrong with memes? : objections and replies -- 12. The origins of language -- 13. The evolution of cultural evolution -- 14. Consciousness as an evolved user-illusion --

How did we come to have minds? For centuries, poets, philosophers, psychologists, and physicists have wondered how the human mind developed its unrivaled abilities. Disciples of Darwin have explained how natural selection produced plants, but what about the human mind? In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Daniel C. Dennett builds on recent discoveries from biology and computer science to show, step by step, how a comprehending mind could in fact have arisen from a mindless process of natural selection. A crucial shift occurred when humans developed the ability to share memes, or ways of doing things not based in genetic instinct. Competition among memes produced thinking tools powerful enough that our minds don't just perceive and react, they create and comprehend. An agenda-setting book for a new generation of philosophers and scientists, From Bacteria to Bach and Back will delight and entertain all those curious about how the mind works