the touch of life

In a long conversation with his daughter Danae, the Author tries to explain where the mind finishes and the universe begins — which is not an easy task, since mind and universe seem to intertwine and confound in an inextricable tangle. To aid in his explanation he resorts to a variety of narratives and dialogues drawn from different mythological, historical, literary, and autobiographical sources. The first chapters consist of evolutionary stories told, in the form of a card game, by the gods and goddesses portrayed by Andrea Mantegna in his famous canvas “The Parnassus”. Then, the evolutionary development of the mind, and of its neural correlates within the brain, is illustrated in an imagined sequel to Lucian of Samosata's True Story, the first classical literature example of a science fiction novel, revisited as a sort of adventurous cosmogonic exploration journey. In the following chapters the author highlights the links of our rational mind to mathematics, and of our emotional sensuality-based body/mind complex to music and the arts, shaping his discussion in the form of short sketches and autobiographical anecdotes. Finally, he outlines the repercussions of evolutionary and contemporary neuroscientific theories on today's economic, political and social issues through a lively imaginary debate between Epicurus, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud.