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The Four Realms of Existence by Joseph E. LeDoux
£20.95
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9780674301559
Published:
28 Nov 2025
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
368 pages
Dimensions:
209.55x139.7mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
Joseph LeDoux argues that ideas like the self are increasingly barriers to discovery and understanding. He offers a new framework, theorizing four realms of existence-bodily, neural, cognitive, and conscious. Together, these four realms operate continuously as an "ensemble of being" to make humans who and what we are.
A Seminary Co-op Notable Book
"A big picture perspective on the mind, decision-making, and consciousness…Provocative and stimulating." -Philosophical Psychology
"LeDoux's aim is to provide a new theory of being human by dividing our evolutionary past into four realms: biological at the bottom, then neurobiological, cognitive and conscious…Along the way are excellent accounts of the evolution of brain structures and cognitive abilities." -New Scientist
"A rigorously scientific yet eminently readable exploration of what it means to be human." -Publishers Weekly
Modern science has largely dispensed with mind-body dualism, yet people still tend to imagine their minds as separate from their physical being. Even researchers persistently presume a "self" somehow distinct from the rest of the organism.
Arguing that the self is a barrier to understanding, leading neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux offers a new framework based on four realms of existence: bodily, neural, cognitive, and conscious. Every living thing, whether bacterium or plant or animal, has a body. Animals alone then supplement such biological existence with a nervous system, which enables quick and precise control of the organism. Certain animals can also think and plan, and thus exist cognitively. Finally, some of the cognitive organisms have inner experiences of and thoughts about the world-the hallmarks of the conscious realm.
These four realms cooperate continuously to create the experience of a being with a past, present, and future. The result, LeDoux shows, is not a self but an "ensemble of being" that subsumes humans' entire existence, both as individuals and as a species.
About the Author: Joseph E. LeDoux is Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Science and Professor of Neural Science, Psychology, Psychiatry, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University. He directs the Emotional Brain Institute at NYU. His many books include Anxious and, most recently, The Deep History of Ourselves.
| Number of pages | 368 |
|---|
We will despatch your order as quickly as we can. If, for whatever reason, a product is out of stock we will contact you to discuss the likely delivery time or an alternative product.
| First Item | 2 Items & Over | |
|---|---|---|
| UK | £3.75 | £5.00 |
| EU | £15.00 | £30.00 |
| USA & Canada | £30.00 | £50.00 |
| Rest of the World | £45.00 | £60.00 |
| Collect in Store | free | free |
Additional Delivery Information (and some really important bits):
UK Delivery
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First Item @ £3.75 (sometimes a shipping supplement may be added for particularly heavy books or specific postcodes*)
2 Items & over @ £5.00 in total
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Shipments to EU countries:
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Shipments to the USA & Canada:
First Item @ £30.00
2 Items & over @ £50.00 in total
Shipments to the Rest of the World:
First Item @ £45.00
2 Items & over @ £60.00 in total
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