Consciousness: a user's guide

Abstract

What is the nature of consciousness? What is the connection between what happens in our brains and what passes through our minds? This volume provides an introduction to consciousness that seeks to do justice both to the science and to the philosophy, the mechanics of mind and the experience of awareness. The text opens with a general discussion of the brain and of consciousness itself. Then, exploring the areas of brain science most likely to illuminate the basis of awareness, Zeman focuses on the science of sleep and waking and on the science of vision. He describes healthy states and disorders - epilepsy, narcolepsy, blindsight and hallucinations after a stroke - that provide insights into the capacity for consciousness and into its contents. He also tracks the evolution of the brain, the human species and human culture, and surveys the main current scientific theories of awareness, pioneering attempts to explain how the brain gives rise to experience. Zeman concludes by examining philosophical arguments about the nature of consciousness. A practising neurologist, he animates his text with examples from the behavioural and neurological disorders of his patients and from the expanding mental worlds of young children, including his own.