“I wrote this book out of my experiences during thirty years of teaching at the Collège de France.
 
In it I look both at culture and art – music and painting – as well as life in society, ethics, and the meaning of death; languages and writing, as well as the neural and molecular bases of memory and learning.
 
This book is a fresco that brings together a great amount of varied data, discussions, and hypotheses. It anchors the substance of contemporary science in the history of a range of disciplines: neurology, ethology, the biology of evolution, the biology of development, the study of consciousness, as well as experimental psychology and genomics.
 
Finally, this book attempts to show that it is up to us to relentlessly inspire the minds of humans to invent a future that will enable humanity to attain a life of more solidarity, a happier life for and with each one of us.” J.-P. C.
 
Jean-Pierre Changeux is honorary professor at the Collège de France and at the Institut Pasteur, a member of the French Academy of Sciences. In addition to L’Homme neuronal [Neuronal Man] he is the author of Raison et Plaisir and L’Homme de vérité. He is also co-author, with Alain Connes, of Matière à penser [Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics] and, with Paul Ricœur, of La Nature et la Règle [What Makes Us Think?]. All thought-provoking works. 

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Contents
5. Translator's Preface
6. Acknowledgments for the French Edition
7. The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
   1. Introduction
      1. In Defense of Neuroscience
   2. FIRST CHAPTER - The Beautiful - Neuroesthetics
      1. What Is Neuroesthetics?
      2. How Can We Define Beauty?
      3. From the Light of Antiquity to Today: An Introduction to Plastic Arts
      4. The Eye and Light Receptors
      5. Antagonist Cells, Concentric Fields, and Shape
      6. Preservation of the Retinal Image on the Cerebral Cortex
      7. Parallel and Hierarchical Organization of the Visual Pathways
      8. Color Vision
      9. The Importance of Color Context
      10. Empathy and Artistic Creation
      11. Sympathy and Contestation
      12. Mental Synthesis and Art's Power to Awaken
      13. Artistic Creation and Mental Darwinism
      14. Music and Painting
          1. CONSENSUS PARTIUM AND PARSIMONY
          2. SYNESTHESIA : RIMBAUD'S SYNDROME
      15. Hearing music
          1. AMUSIA
          2. CONSONANCE AND DISSONANCE
          3. MUSICAL CHILLS: THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSE TO MUSIC
      16. Physiology of Collection and Collectors
          1. EXPLORE, COLLECT, UNDERSTAND
          2. COLLECTING AND CONTEMPLATING ART
      17. Charles Le Brun, Founding Father of Neuroesthetics?
   3. CHAPTER TWO - The Good - Neuroscience and Ethical Norm ativity
      1. The Complexity of the Brain
      2. Mental Objects
      3. The Violence Inhibitor and Sympathy
      4. Internalization of Moral Rules and Social Conventions
      5. Ethical Normativity
         1. ORIGINS OF MORAL NECESSITY
         2. SUCCESSIVE LEVELS IN THE NORMATIVE PROCESS
      6. Models of Social Life and Evolution of Moral Theories
         1. MORAL SENTIMENTS FROM ANTIQUITY TO NIETZSCHE
         2. THE RATIONALIST MODEL AND THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
         3. EPIGENES IS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS
         4. A GENERALIZED EVOLUTIONARY MODEL
      7. The Natural Foundations of Ethics
      8. Cultural Evolution
         1. MODELS OF SOCIETY AND ETHICAL THEORIES
         2. SOCIAL LIFE
         3. SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING AND THEORY OF MIND
      9. Coevolution of Genes and Culture, and Cooperative Behavior
         1. KIN SELECTION
         2. TIT-FOR-TAT SELECTION
         3. GROUP SELECTION
         4. DECISION MAKING IN AFRICAN BUFFALO
         5. NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE AND COLLECTIVE DECISION MAKING
   4. CHAPTER THREE - Truth - A Naturalistic Concept of the World
      1. How Have We Arrived at a Naturalistic Concept of the World?
      2. Representation and Knowledge: The Major Stages since Antiquity
      3. The Objective World
      4. The Raging Beast—Cognition and Language
         1. THE NEURAL BASIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
         2. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
      5. Contemporary Theories and Debates on Consciousness
         1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE THALAMOCORTICAL SYSTEM
         2. ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY, EEG, AND EVOKED POTENTIALS
         3. THALAMOCORTICAL RESONANCE AS A NEURAL BASIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
         4. CRICK, EDELMAN, AND BAARS: THE FIRST DEBATES ON NEURONAL CORRELATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
         5. THE DEBATE CONTINUES
         6. OUR FORMAL MODEL
         7. THE GLOBAL NEURONAL WORKSPACE
      6. Consciousness and Social Interaction
         1. THEORIES O F COMMUNICATION: CODE MODEL OR INFERENTIAL MODEL?
         2. MIRROR NEURONS AND RECIPROCITY OF COMMUNICATION OF INTENTIONS
         3. THE NEURONAL BASIS OF THEORY OF MIND AND ATTRIBUTION
         4. THE CONSCIOUS NEURONAL WORKSPACE: A NEURONAL MODEL OF SOCIAL NORMALIZATION
      7. The Neural Basis of Language
         1. LANGUAGE SPECIALIZATION IN THE HUMAN BRAIN
         2. NEUROPSYCHOLOGY O F LANGUAGE
      8. Epigenesis of the Sign
         1. ALLIANCE OF SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED
         2. SYNAPTOGENES IS AND EFFECTS OF LEARNING DURING DEVELOPMENT
      9. The Cerebral Imprint of Writing
         1. WORDS AND WRITING
         2. PREHISTORIC WALL PAINTINGS
         3. THE INVENTION OF WRITING
         4. PICTO-IDEOGRAPHIC WRITING
         5. CUNEIFORM WRITING
      10. Evolution of the Sign
          1. EGYPTIAN
          2. CHINESE
          3. KOREAN AND JAPANESE
      11. The Birth of the Alphabet
      12. The Circuits of Writing
          1. NEURO PSYCHOLOGY OF WRITING
   5. CHAPTER IV - The Molecular Biology of the Brain
      1. Genes and Phylogenesis
         1. THE QUESTION OF ORIGINS: CREATIONISM OR EVOLUTION
         2. COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PALEONTOLOGY OF THE BRAIN
         3. GENETIC EVOLUTION AND HOMINIZATION
         4. HUMAN NATURE IN SILICO
         5. GENETICS OF BODY SHAPE: THE EXAMPLE OF DROSOPHILA
         6. CONSEQUENCES OF RESULTS FROM DROSOPHILA
         7. TURING AND BRAIN EVOLUTION
         8. CRITICISM OF THE NOTION OF A GENETIC PROGRAM
         9. GENETIC MECHANISMS OF VARIATION OF THE BRAIN
         10. THE ROLE OF SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY IN THE DEVELOPING NERVOUS SYSTEM
         11. SPONT ANEOUS FETAL ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY AND PARADOXICAL SLEEP
         12. CRITICISM OF THE EMPIRICIST POSITION
   6. CHAPTER V - Molecules and the Mind
      1. The Discovery of Neurotransmitter Receptors
      2. The Contribution of Electrophysiology
      3. Is the Acetylcholine Receptor an Allosteric Protein?
      4. The Electric Organ of Torpedo: Identification of the Acetylcholine Receptor
      5. Molecular genetics of the acetylcholine receptor
      6. Functional Properties of the Acetylcholine Receptor
      7. What Is New with Channel Receptors?
      8. Receptors with Seven Transmembrane Domains
      9. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Learning
      10. Evolution of Theories and Models of Learning: Birth of Experimental Psychology
      11. Allosteric Receptors and Molecular Models of Learning
      12. Aplysia, a Cellular Model of Learning
      13. The Chemistry of Consciousness
          1. THE CHEMISTRY OF WAKING AND SLEEPING
          2. GENERAL ANESTHETICS
          3. MECHANISMS OF ACTION ON THE MEMBRANE
          4. RECEPTORS FOR GENERAL ANESTHETICS
          5. RECEPTORS LINKED TO ION CHANNELS
          6. SPECIFIC NEURONAL CIRCUITS
   7. CHAPTER VI - Where Do We Stand Today? - From neuronal man to the physiology of truth
      1. The Development of Brain Science: a Little History
      2. The Power of the Genes
      3. The Genetic Origins of the Human Brain
      4. The Proteome and Cerebral Morphogenesis: From One Dimension to Three
      5. Epigenesis by Selective Stabilization of Synapses
         1. THE ROLE OF SPONTANEOUS ACTIVITY IN EPIGENESIS BY SELECTION
         2. EPIGENESIS OF DIFFERENT SENSORY MODALITIES
         3. SENSORY COMPENSATION IN THE BLIND
         4. GENETIC CONSTRAINTS OF CONNECTIONAL EPIGENESIS
         5. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY OF EPIGENESIS BY SELECTION
      6. Problems of Consciousness
      7. Enriching Knowledge
   8. CHAPTER SEVEN - Epilogue
      1. The Significance of Death Seen by an Evolutionary Neurobiologist
         1. DEATH IS NOT CHARACTERISTIC OF MAN ALONE
         2. THE HUMAN BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS OF DEATH
         3. THE MYTHS OF DEATH
8. Conclusion
   1. The good, the true, and the beautiful
9. Selected bibliography
10. Index