6 a brain based approach 7 forms of knowledge the divorce between science and the humanities 8 repairing the rift 9 causation illusions and values 10 creativity the play between specificity and range 11 abnormal states 12 brain based devices toward a conscious artifact 13 second nature the transformation of knowledge. Second nature brain science and human knowledge by gerald m edelman is a nonfiction book that tells you all about different kinds of science related topics it goes through all sorts of things like explaining scientific understandings brain functions consciousness and evolution. Download citation second nature brain science and human knowledge burgeoning advancements in brain science are opening up new perspectives on how we acquire knowledge indeed it is now . Editorial reviews it was william jamess dream that physiology psychology and philosophy be joined into a single discipline and in second nature the latest volume in gerald m edelmans seminal series of books on neural darwinism this dream of a brain based epistemology is brought closer than ever to realizationfor anyone who is interested in human consciousness this is required reading