The Brain and Its Self. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

"Konstantin Anokhin — neurobiologist, specialist in cognitive research. Director of the Institute of Advanced Brain Studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Professor, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Tatyana Chernigovskaya — neurolinguist, specialist in cognitive research. Director of the Institute of Cognitive Studies at St. Petersburg State University. Professor, member of the Russian Academy of Education. The brain is the most complex material object known to man. In recent decades, science has learned more about it than in all of human history before. Yet the main mysteries associated with it remain unsolved. The book «The Brain and Its Self» addresses these central questions: «Who are we?», «Where do we come from?», «Where are we going?» Over the millennia, they have intertwined into a complex knot of problems — about the essence of the human «self», soul, psyche, mind, consciousness; about their connections with each other, with the body and brain; about their origins and place in the world. Today, it is becoming increasingly clear that mere accumulation of new facts about the brain will do little to advance science in solving them. To move forward, we need to outline a path. The authors of this book make such an attempt. In a series of intense discussions held in the heart of Altai, on the Katun River, they formulate twenty key questions for modern brain science and step by step try to outline the contours of their solutions. In its format – a weaving of historical materials, dialogues of the authors, and complementary analyses, this book has inherited from the famous monograph by Karl Popper and John Eccles «“The Self” and Its Brain». Half a century later, Konstantin Anokhin and Tatyana Chernigovskaya attempt to understand what changes have occurred today in this centuries-old problem and strive to look beyond the known — into the future of brain research as the center of our «self»."