Consciousness: A Users Guide

Consciousness. A User's Guide In this thought-provoking book, neurologist Adam Zeman offers an enlightening view of consciousness seen through the.
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• Consciousness: A User's Guide by Adam Zeman

Tigger is terrified by the audacious imposter. Streetwise Winnie is calmly re-assuring. The Ugly Duckling is already fully wized-up to the identity of his Zeman might opt for her doppel- JON This review is like a runner completing the London Marathon dressed as Winnie the Pooh — comes in late but covered the ground. At first, things seemed difficult: Put aside for some months, Consciousness: But there is only so much skirting around the issues. Sooner or later you have to engage the enemy and Zeman does it around the well-worn path of vision.

Here, one spots his tactic.

And like Francis Crick and Gerald Edelman who also tread the path of vision as the metaphor of consciousness, Zeman takes us into the maze of cellular architecture, ocular dominance columns and functional organization, bizarre clinical experiences of the Oliver Sacks Man, Wife and Hat variety, and the Art and Illusion of Ernst Gombrich et al.

In Sherringtonian terms, one might denote this as action in defiance of the reflex rituals, as it were. For Semir Zeki, Gerald Edelman, Francis Crick, David Milner, Larry Weiskrantz and Jeffrey Gray it comes about through variations on an anatomical theme of structured dialogue between neural systems — a distributed but contiguous bushfire burning under the cauldrons of mind.

Is Zeman a Cartesian dualist? The answer is neither black nor white but Brown e. Later, it is more difficult to say. That said, he has no time for the proposal that computers are conscious.

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His final word is non-Cartesian: There speaks the neurologist in Adam Zeman, rather than the philosopher. The production of this book is styled for the Humanities. Many quotations are in the text.

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Notes and expansions with acknowledgements are at the back. The figures are mostly borrowed and adequately reproduced. The complexity of the subject is evident from the first chapter. Furthermore, it cannot be considered in isolation from self-consciousness and conscience.

The dissection of this previously innocuous word and the mapping of the links between its different meanings is fascinating and thought-provoking. All ideas, particularly difficult ones, are best approached from first principles. This is effectively achieved through Zeman's foray into the etymology, definition and subsequent expansion of consciousness both as a word and as a concept.

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Our further understanding of the subject is then gradually built up by a wide-ranging but well-directed journey. Evolution can be thought of as the etymology of existence; anatomy and embryology give important insights into higher functioning. But we also need to reflect on the structure and function of sleep in this context.

The relevance and subtleties of these subjects are demonstrated with a wealth of clinical examples. Familial fatal insomnia is a topically relevant cousin of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Ideas may 'come' to us, but if we expect them to go anywhere, and do something positive, they must mean something.

Build authenticity by trying to understand the human mind, and your chances are better.

Jan 01, Keith rated it it was amazing. This is a fantastic objective summary of consciousness from nearly all angles - something of a rarity when compared to other books on the topic. Don't let the publishing date deter you, Zeman's forthright writing style and erudite coverage may be difficult to follow at times but rereading certain parts which were novel to me were well worth the effort since the author tends to expand on previously mentioned ideas, facts, and studies.

While he makes no claim to exhaust the subject matter - in fact, Zeman includes a suggested reading section along with his extensive notes, references, glossary, figures and tables - there is plenty of new information for the majority of readers, even with previous knowledge on the subject. While the author does provide an overview on basic biology and neurology, it would help to be primed on these subjects already.

Note that Zeman writes in a succinct, well thought out and punctual manner. This great benefit to his writing may be lost on some readers lacking fundamental scientific concepts. Jan 24, Joseph added it. I read this book because I have cursorily followed the attempt to form a science of consciousness for some years. I found the book well written although chapter lengths routinely exceeded my idiosyncratic 25 page comfort limit making reading a long hard slog.

The author includes a useful summary at the end of chapters which recaps what the chapter covers in more detail.

The principal issue in highly condensed form: The book is an exhaustive tour of the best of scientific and philosophical knowledge and speculation on the vital issue of what consciousness is and what it is good for. Needless to say not all problems are resolved and, in the opinions of some, not resolvable. There is no encouragement there for those few who do not believe in Darwinian evolution.

Sep 22, Hadrian rated it really liked it Shelves: Good examination and introduction to the discussion of 'what is consciousness'. Begins with tough, but tasty discussions on evolutionary biology and neuroscience, and continues to more philosophical discussions later. These are covered in the most detail.

Fascinating stuff, and definitely worth approaching, from both a neuroanatomical or humanities perspective. Hard to get through unless the reader is a hardcore fan of science. Hatice Kurucu rated it it was amazing Jul 25, Ethan rated it really liked it Sep 14, Engin rated it liked it Oct 05,