Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The great flood of books on consciousness shows no sign of receding: 'the scientific race for consciousness is on'. If the flood is a race, a journalist observes, 'it is an unconventional one in which neither the starting line nor the finish have been agreed on. The arguments are not only over answers to questions, they are over what the questions should be, and what the terms of discussion mean.... Disagreements are dismayingly large, and on occasion blunt beyond the normal bounds of scientific discourse' (Gorman, 1997, pp. B7, B9). A dozen or so books on consciousness, which are reviewed in this essay, left me not only similarly impressed, but also quite puzzled. What is it that we wish to have explained about consciousness? Does it exist as stuff? Should scientific explanations of consciousness have anything to say about Timothy McVeigh, Nelson Mandela, a cheating banker, Mother Theresa, and so on-about the variety of human experience in short? In this critical review, such questions are addressed via an analysis of the current trends and progress in the science of consciousness and the science's principles of theory building.

Keywords

consciousness mind/body problem theory of psychology

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Calvin, W.H. , & Ojemann, G.A. (1994). Conversations with Neil's brain. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Churchland, P.S. (1996). Toward a neurobiology of the mind. In R. Llinas & P. S. Churchland (Eds.), The mind-brain continuum (pp. 280-303). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Crick, F. (1994). The astonishing hypothesis: The scientific search for the soul. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Dennett, D.C. (1995, December 21). The mystery of consciousness: An exchange. The New York Review of Books, p. 83.

Edelman, G.M. (1987). Neural Darwinism. New York: Basic Books.

Gorman, J. (1997, April 29). Consciousness studies: From stream to flood. The New York limes, pp. B7, B9.

James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. New York: Holt.

Llinas, R. & Pare, D. (1996). The brain as a closed system modulated by the senses. In R. Llinas & P. S. Churchland (Eds.), The mind-brain continuum (pp. 1-18). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Merzenich, M.M. , & deCharms, R.C. (1996). Neural representations, experience, and change. In R. Llinas & P. S. Churchland (Eds.), The mind-brain continuum (pp. 61-81). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

10.

Robinson, D.N. (1996). Review Note on Damasio, A.R. (1994). Theory & Psychology, 6(2), 356-358.

11.

Searle, J.R. (1995a, November 2). The mystery of consciousness. The New York Review of Books, pp. 60-66.

12.

Searle, J.R. (1995b, November 16). The mystery of consciousness. The New York Review of Books, pp. 54-61.

13.

Searle, J.R. (1995c, December 21). The mystery of consciousness: An exchange. The New York Review of Books, pp. 83-85.

14.

Searle, J.R. (1997, March 6). Consciousness & the philosophers. The New York Review of Books, pp. 43-50.

15.

Shapiro, Y. (1991). Towards a neuropsychological theory of human memory (Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, 1991). Dissertation Abstracts International, 52-06B, 3279.

16.

Shapiro, Y. (1992). On Edelman (1987, 1989), a letter to H. Putnam. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

17.

Shapiro, Y. (1996). The perceiving brain: Turing's machine or Darwin's machine? Whose brain? Theory & Psychology, 6(2), 195-228.

18.

Shapiro, Y. (1997). Consciousness according to James: Forgetting, disregarding, and other selective activities of bodies-and-brains. Theory & Psychology, 7(4), 457-481.

The Consciousness Hype: What Do We Want Explained?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References