Jeremy Sherman writes about biophilosophy, psychology, and politics. He teaches college courses across the social sciences and blogs for Psychology Today and Alternet. He has studied and collaborated with Terrence Deacon for twenty years. Terrence Deacon is professor of biological anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain (1997) and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter (2011).

In Neither Ghost nor Machine, Jeremy Sherman takes on a central mystery: How did the universe get from matter to mattering? Whence purpose? Whence selves? These are topics too easily ignored in our rush to find the molecular stuff of life and not the organizational "what is” of life. With this fine book, and that of Deacon, we are well launched.

• Foreword, by Terrence DeaconI. Overview1. The Mystery of Purpose2. The Biggest Mystery We Ever Ignore3. Deacon’s Solution in BriefII. Framing the Mystery4. Two Sources of Change5. Selves6. Two Ghosts, Two Machines7. Interpretation8. Aims9. Evolution’s Limited Limiting RoleIII. Dead Ends, Live Clues10. The History11. Evolutionary Theory’s Elusive Self12. Information About Nothing for Anyone13. The Engineered Ghosts in Our Machines14. Small Is DubiousIV. Grounding a Solution15. Processes of Emergent Elimination16. Second Law Irregularity17. Emergent Regularization18. Emergent Regularization vs. Emergent Self-Regeneration19. Other Emergent Regularization Dynamics20. Coupled Regularization ProcessesV. Deacon’s Solution21. Autogens: Self-Generators22. Evolved Autogens23. Where Is the Self?24. The Consequences of Self-RegenerationVI. The Interpreting Self25. Codes, Signs, Interpreters26. Kinds of SignsVII. Implications27. A Constraint-Based Approach to Evolutionary Theory28. Implications for the Free Will Debate?29. Making Science Safe for ValueAcknowledgmentsAppendixNotesIndex

Jeremy Sherman writes about biophilosophy, psychology, and politics. He teaches college courses across the social sciences and blogs for Psychology Today and Alternet. He has studied and collaborated with Terrence Deacon for twenty years. Terrence Deacon is professor of biological anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of The Symbolic Species: The Co-evolution of Language and the Brain (1997) and Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter (2011).

In Neither Ghost nor Machine, Jeremy Sherman takes on a central mystery: How did the universe get from matter to mattering? Whence purpose? Whence selves? These are topics too easily ignored in our rush to find the molecular stuff of life and not the organizational "what is” of life. With this fine book, and that of Deacon, we are well launched.

• Foreword, by Terrence DeaconI. Overview1. The Mystery of Purpose2. The Biggest Mystery We Ever Ignore3. Deacon’s Solution in BriefII. Framing the Mystery4. Two Sources of Change5. Selves6. Two Ghosts, Two Machines7. Interpretation8. Aims9. Evolution’s Limited Limiting RoleIII. Dead Ends, Live Clues10. The History11. Evolutionary Theory’s Elusive Self12. Information About Nothing for Anyone13. The Engineered Ghosts in Our Machines14. Small Is DubiousIV. Grounding a Solution15. Processes of Emergent Elimination16. Second Law Irregularity17. Emergent Regularization18. Emergent Regularization vs. Emergent Self-Regeneration19. Other Emergent Regularization Dynamics20. Coupled Regularization ProcessesV. Deacon’s Solution21. Autogens: Self-Generators22. Evolved Autogens23. Where Is the Self?24. The Consequences of Self-RegenerationVI. The Interpreting Self25. Codes, Signs, Interpreters26. Kinds of SignsVII. Implications27. A Constraint-Based Approach to Evolutionary Theory28. Implications for the Free Will Debate?29. Making Science Safe for ValueAcknowledgmentsAppendixNotesIndex