Consciousness and Human Identity - Hardcover

Cornwell, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198503237 ISBN 13: 9780198503231

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

Synopsis

What processes of the brain or the mind can explain the uniquely personal experience we have of smelling a rose, or feeling the pain of toothache, or seeing the point of a newspaper cartoon, or sensing a pang of post-modernist angst in the run up to the Millennium. The phenomenon of human higher-order consciousness - that there is something that it is like for human beings to experience the world - has puzzled philosophers, naturalists and theologians down the ages. Now, somewhat belatedly, consciousness has caught the interest of scientists, some of whom believe they are on the brink of discovering its basis in neurobiological processes. This book, drawing together leading figures from the spheres of science and philosophy, is about the prospects of finding a scientific explanation of consciousness. It also considers how our view of ourselves could be affected by such a scientific explanation. Until recently, the vast complexity of the brain had kept researchers from tackling the thorny topic of consciousness.

About this title

Review

The problem of how we, as humans, "see" ourselves has intrigued philosophers, theologians, scientists and most reflective people for centuries. As John Cornwell, editor and contributor to this collection of essays, reminds us: "...consciousness lies at the very heart of what it means to be human: in the Western tradition consciousness is the very eye of the human soul". But the phenomenon of human consciousness has proved to be remarkably difficult to understand.

Scientists had all but given up the struggle to understand the link between the brain and consciousness--one of the last frontiers of science, perhaps its ultimate challenge, according to the neuroscientist Eric Kandel. Now, after years of neglect, biologists are applying new non-invasive and non-destructive techniques to the workings of the brain, the processing of stimuli from the senses and how they impinge on our sense of self.

This collection of 11 essays by philosophers, psychologists, scientists and a theologian, mainly from British universities, stems from symposia held in Cambridge in 1992 and 1995. They tackle the fundamental difficulty of how to approach the problem, whether the "ordinary methods of science can be applied to consciousness" and if the "reductive" approach is applicable to such a complex phenomenon.

The editor, John Cornwell, is director of the Science and Human Dimension Project at the University of Cambridge. Consequently, the book has a pretty "heavyweight" academic pedigree and line-up of contributors. The essays have footnotes and references but the writing is generally accessible. For anyone interested in the state of the debate on the fundamental question of how we see ourselves, there are plenty of thought provoking stimuli in these essays. --Douglas Palmer

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198503237
• ISBN 13: 9780198503231
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248