Being and Perceiving:
Synopsis

Inside every human being's head sits a copy of the most powerful computer in the known universe, but none of us is ever provided with an instruction manual. 

My book, Being and Perceiving, synthesizes the various schools of psychology to form a unified model, then maps this model to neuroanatomy to reveal the structure of phenomenological space and the neurological processes which underlie it. 

The text is illustrated with 30 diagrammatic images, taking influence from a range of other artists (e.g., Paul Laffoley, Alphonse Mucha, Gustave Dore, Adolf Wolfli). You can take a look at these illustrations here. 

The book is split into two halves, each of which deals with a distinct phenomenological realm. The first half explains how the brain creates the internal world of the mind (hence "being"), while the second half describes how the brain creates the external world of our experiences (hence "perceiving").

These ideas are set within a larger philosophical framework, based around the concept of being-in-the-world (i.e., we are never merely conscious, we are always conscious of some thing, and we therefore cannot separate "being" from the world we perceive). This concept ties together the two halves of the book. 

The text also explores the neuroscience of "spiritual" experiences, drawing on both Jungian and Nietzschean perspectives to examine the fact that, if there is no god, all transcendent experiences must be experiences of particular psychological states. Within this framework, the text also draws strongly from Eastern philosophy, examining both Buddhist and Hindu concepts. 

The book is divided into 102 sections, which are numbered according to a system based on that used by Wittgenstein in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.  
   Title: Being and Perceiving 
   Author: Daniel E. Haycock 
   Publisher: Manupod Press 
   Language: English 
   ISBN-10: 0956962106 
   ISBN-13: 978-0956962102  

Links:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

Being and Perceiving in Google Books
All site and contents copyright © Daniel E. Haycock 2011
As always, many kind thanks go to Kevin Reece 
www.danhaycock.co.uk