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by: Rita Carter  Amazon.com's Price: $50.00 Prices subject to change.Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 153 EAN: 9780520237377 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0520237374 Label: University of California Press Manufacturer: University of California Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 320 Publication Date: September 02, 2002 Publisher: University of California Press Studio: University of California Press Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Product Description: 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. Her 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Great overview. Possibly spoilt by too much imageryHaving read Carter's 'Mapping the Mind' I was intrigued to read what she would make of consciousness. To be fair this is a great tour de force and accessible to anyone with a reasonable level of education. The book covers a huge range of bases - neurological, psychological and philosophical. The author displays the great gift of being able to pull the strands together pretty convincingly. What it has in coverage, however, is not matched by its depth - largely due to the enormous complexity of ... Read More Rating: - Keep the philosophers out of neurologyI loved her other book: 'Mapping the Mind' which I reviewed quite favorably. This one, however, is more touchy-feely. Does anyone currently on Earth have the presumption to say they know the answer to a question which cannot be phrased? You may recall in Doug Adams 'Hitch-hikers guide to the Galaxy' that the supercomputer was asked the question, 'What is the answer to life, the universe and all that?' Of course, without the right question, it yielded the wrong answer: 43. Or was it 42? ... Read More Rating:  - "You" could be changed by this book.In her book, Mapping The Mind, award winning science journalist Rita Carter did an excellent job of explaining the current state of knowledge about the brain and how it functions and determines our behavior. She describes how different parts of our brain are involved in the sensory experience of the world and giving rise to the many aspects of our behavior and ultimately to our sense of self. In Exploring Consciousness, she takes on the more difficult task of explaining ideas of how the sense of self ... Read More Rating: - Gives a good framework for the issue......but incomplete. In this book and in "Mapping the Mind", Carter tends to side w/ the deterministic interpretation of human behavior. She outlines her reasons for thinking so--namely, the dissonance between our consciousness and reality (we are aware of phenomena 1/2 second passed their occurence) and the infamous Libet's experiment--but there is evidence that the brain's neurons CAN adapt and reform new networks, what is called neuroplasticity. Jeffrey Schwartz' book "The Mind and The Brain" proves ... Read More Rating: - Utterly FascinatingConsciousness. 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 ... Read More 
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