Dr. Merlin Donald
Fellow
Current Employer
Queen's University
Election Year
1995
Academy
Academy of Social Sciences
Discipline
Psychology
Department
Department of Psychology
Keywords
Cognition, brain, evolution, symbolic technology, consciousness
Professor Merlin Donald has had, in a sense, two careers. First, he has had a distinguished career as an experimental neuroscientist working mainly in the technical fields of human electrophysiology and neuropsychology. Second, in the last decade he has turned to theoretical work on cognitive evolution, producing a remarkable book, "Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition", a work of vast synthesis which has achieved international acclaim and provoked widespread discussion.
His second book, "A Mind So Rare: The evolution of human consciousness" was published in the Spring of 2001 by W.W. Norton, New York. He subsequently served as Head of Psychology at Queen's. In 2005, he became Professor Emeritus at Queen's and became founding Chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. In 2010 he was appointed Honorary Professor at Aarhus Unversity, Denmark and in 2016, Fellow of the Swedish Collegium, Uppsala.
His second book, "A Mind So Rare: The evolution of human consciousness" was published in the Spring of 2001 by W.W. Norton, New York. He subsequently served as Head of Psychology at Queen's. In 2005, he became Professor Emeritus at Queen's and became founding Chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. In 2010 he was appointed Honorary Professor at Aarhus Unversity, Denmark and in 2016, Fellow of the Swedish Collegium, Uppsala.