|aDarwin's pharmacy|h[electronic resource] :|bsex, plants, and the evolution of the noosphere/|cRichard Doyle.
260
|aSeattle :|bUniversity of Washington Press,|cc2011.|e(Baltimore, Md. :|fProject MUSE,|g2013)
300
|a1 online resource (ix. 358 p.) :|bill.
504
|aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 331-345) and index.
520
|a"Are humans unwitting partners in evolution with psychedelic plants? Darwin's Pharmacy weavesthe evolutionary theory of sexual selection and the study of rhetoric together with the science andliterature of psychedelic drugs. Long suppressed as components of the human tool kit, psychedelic plants can be usefully modeled as "eloquence adjuncts" thatintensify a crucial component of sexual selection in humans: discourse. In doing so, they engage our awareness of the nooesphere, defined by V.I. Vernadsky as the thinking stratum of the earth, the realm of consciousness feeding back onto thebiosphere. Sharing intelligence, connecting with the nooesphere and integrating individuality into its ecosystemic context offers powerful and promising ways to respond to ecosystems in crisis, and formed the backdrop of what Doyle dubs the "ecodelic" thought of the environmental movement. Yet current policies criminalizethe use of plant-based psychedelics while simultaneously feeding a violent global black market for refined and chemically-derived drugs.In this tour de force of "first-person science," Doyle takes his readers on a mind bending journey through the work of William Burroughs, Kary Mullis, Lynn Margulis, Timothy Leary, Norma Panduro, Albert Hoffman, AldousHuxley, Dennis and Terrence McKenna, John Lilly and Phillip K. Dick. Readers who take the journey that is Darwin's Pharmacy will experience extraordinary insights into evolutionary theory, the war on drugs, the internet,and the nature of human consciousness itself. Richard M. Doyle is professor of English and science,technology, and society at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of On Beyond Living and Wetwares"Darwin's Pharmacy is a significant achievement, a brilliant, ambitious, original piece of pedagogy. I can't imagine anybody but Doyle whocould control and mobilize in the name of a single vision the range and dizzying variety of the material on offer." -Brian Rotman, Ohio StateUniversity"Darwin's Pharmacy is a beautiful book-poetry in prose and modern music in print. It is a book for all readers who have ever wondered whether dreams are another form or a different part of wakened consciousness and reality. Doyle dispenses with dualism and parallelism, expanding wonder from dreams to ecodelic states and the possibilities and difficulties of communication about these states via language." -Stanley Shostak, University of Pittsburgh"--|cProvided by publisher.
588
|aDescription based on print version record.
650
0
|aRhetoric|xPhilosophy.
650
0
|aSexual selection in animals.
650
0
|aConsciousness.
650
0
|aHallucinogenic drugs|xPsychological aspects.
650
0
|aHallucinogenic plants|xPsychic aspects.
650
0
|aBiosphere.
650
0
|aGaia hypothesis.
650
0
|aBiology|xPhilosophy.
710
2
|aProject Muse.
856
40
|zAn electronic book accessible through the World Wide Web; click for information|uhttp://muse.jhu.edu/books/9780295803005/