Out of Our Minds

To imagine—to see what is not there—is the startling ability that has fuelled human development and innovation through the centuries. As a species we stand alone in our remarkable capacity to refashion the world after the picture in our minds.

Traversing the realms of science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history, Felipe Fernández-Armesto reveals the thrilling and disquieting tales of our imaginative leaps— from the first Homo sapiens to the present day. Through groundbreaking insights in cognitive science, he explores how and why we have ideas in the first place, providing a tantalizing glimpse into who we are and what we might yet accomplish. A magisterial paean to the human imagination from a wonderfully elegant thinker, Ou t of Our Minds is a unique history of our species and the ideas that have defined Bronze Age thinking all the way up to today.