Exploring Consciousness

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Rita Carter ponders the nature, origins, and purpose of consciousness in this fascinating inquiry into the toughest problem facing modern science and philosophy. Building on the foundation of her bestselling book Mapping the Mind, she considers whether consciousness is merely an illusion, a by-product of our brain's workings, some as yet inexplicable feature or property of the material universe or -- as the latest physics may suggest -- the very fundament of reality. Little, she...
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More About This Book

Overview

Rita Carter ponders the nature, origins, and purpose of consciousness in this fascinating inquiry into the toughest problem facing modern science and philosophy. Building on the foundation of her bestselling book Mapping the Mind, she considers whether consciousness is merely an illusion, a by-product of our brain's workings, some as yet inexplicable feature or property of the material universe or -- as the latest physics may suggest -- the very fundament of reality. Little, she discovers, is as it first seems.

Carter draws from a solid body of knowledge -- empirical findings and theoretical hypotheses -- about consciousness, much of it derived from recent discoveries about the brain. The latest research suggests that the answers to understanding human awareness might be within our grasp, though nothing about consciousness is clear-cut and we are, at best, unreliable witnesses as to its nature. The author shows that consciousness is neither seamless nor immediate. From stimulus to conscious awareness there is a gap of up to half a second, for example, which consciousness seems to fill by back-dating itself in time. Carter's lively, accessible narrative ranges widely over new ways of thinking about the subject, and what direction new research is taking. Leading scholars from a range of perspectives provide topical essays that complement Carter's account. The book also discusses how traditional approaches -- philosophical, scientific and experiential -- might be brought together to create a more complete understanding of consciousness.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
Is consciousness an illusion or is it a byproduct of the percolations of our brain? Or is it, as some modern physicists suggest, the very fundament of reality? Writing in lucid, almost lilting prose, science writer Rita Carter addresses such questions by exploring recent empirical findings and theoretical hypotheses about the nature of consciousness. Exploring Consciousness also contains topical articles by leading scholars, including John Searle and Andrew Duggins.
John Horgan
In a breezy and clear style, Carter provides a broad, lucid survey of most of the interesting ideas and people involved in the trendy field of consciousness research, pulling together many disparate philosophical and scientific views.
Library Journal
Neuroscientists and philosophers refer to consciousness as "the hard problem." The most fundamental questions are still open to debate. What exactly is consciousness? How does a phenomenon that seems so immaterial arise from that wet ball of glop we call a brain? (Indeed, does it arise from matter at all or arrive from somewhere else?) While Carter, who probed the "easy problems" (emotion, perception, and thought) in her acclaimed Mapping the Mind, does not claim to have solved these dilemmas, she argues that empirical findings point toward an answer. Her goal is to provide an overview of those data for nonspecialists. In this she succeeds admirably, rendering difficult material both interesting and comprehensible. A notable feature is the inclusion of sidebars by a number of experts in consciousness research, explaining their own theories or describing certain topics in greater detail. The book itself is very handsome, with charming illustrations that also show a number of the "thought experiments" that are an important part of consciousness research. Informed readers of all backgrounds will love this. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries. Mary Ann Hughes, Neill P.L., Pullman, WA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780520237377
  • Publisher: University of California Press
  • Publication date: 9/1/2002
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 320
  • Product dimensions: 7.75 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 1.00 (d)

Meet the Author

Rita Carter is a science writer whose work has appeared in, among other publications, The New York Times, Washington Post, New Scientist, and Daily Telegraph. She has twice been awarded the Medical Journalists' Association prize for outstanding contributions to medical journalism. Her first book, Mapping the Mind, was shortlisted for the Rhône-Poulenc science prize.

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Table of Contents

Introduction 6
Some (Possibly) Boring but Important Notes on Language 8
1 A Stream of Illusion 11
Vision - The Grand Illusion 16
The Higher-Order Thought Model of Consciousness 45
2 The Hard Problem 49
Facing up to Consciousness 50
Facing Backwards on the Problem of Consciousness 51
Solving the Hard Problem - Naturally 70
A Quantum Description of Mind 74
3 The Old Steam Whistle Test 79
The Making of Mind 100
4 Making Consciousation 103
5 Consciousness and the Brain 143
The Network Mind 166
6 The Conscious Body 177
What do Robots Think About? 180
The Primordial SELF 186
7 The Conscious Self 209
Ownership and Agency 227
Predicting the Present 232
Meme Machines and Consciousness 241
8 Fractured Consciousness 247
9 A Conscious Universe? 277
Quantum Minds 298
References 308
Further reading 313
Index 316
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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 4, 2004

    Utterly Fascinating

    Consciousness. What is it? How can the coordinated firing of billions of neurons, through trillions of synaptic connections, create an experience of the world around us? And what about Self-Consciousness? What is the ¿I¿ that we all envision when our thoughts turn inward? Exploring Consciousness is a richly illustrated, state-of-the-art text that explains the latest consciousness-related research and theories in terms anyone can understand. In chapter 4, for example, the author draws a clever airship analogy, where inter-passenger communication and observations mimic the cognitive processes in the human brain. The latest consciousness-related research and brain imaging studies show that neural activation produces a representation of reality within our brains, and it is this representation that we call consciousness. Exploring Consciousness goes a long way towards constructing a coherent picture of what is actually happening in the brain each time a moment of consciousness is experienced. --David Hitchcock, author, VIRTUAL LIFE and PATENT SEARCHING MADE EASY

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