Edelman's biological theory of brain development, organization and function (the neural group selection theory) provides a view of mental processes that challanges the basic assumpions of many current approaches to cognition, mainly the well known brain/computer analogy and the related idea of information processing. This paper reviews the the concepts on which the theory is built up, starting from Edelman's work in the field of immunology and considering some fundamental implications of his subsequent research in molecular embryology. The extension of the concepts derived from these previous inquiries to the study of higher brain functions is examined in detail.

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