Animal and the Thinker

John Duncan is among the pioneers of modern cognitive neuroscience. He has worked for more than forty years on the puzzles of mind and brain, with joint appointments at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the British Academy. In 2012 he was awarded the Heineken Prize in Cognitive Science.

A tour de force. John Duncan has marshalled his experience as a world-class cognitive neuroscientist to remind us that whilst reason seems to define the human mind, the role of our animal instincts, as studied through Darwinian ethology, powerfully shape our behaviour and our social values. Duncan writes with an elegant clarity which is simultaneously thought-provoking and entertaining