Consciousness. A User'S Guide

Why are we conscious? How do events in our brains give rise to events in our minds? This engaging and readable book provides an introduction to consciousness which does justice both to science and to philosophy, to the mechanics of the mind and the experience of awareness. Aimed at the general reader as well as students of consciousness, the book opens with a ground-plan of consciousness and a detailed look at the brain. It then focuses on two key areas of neuroscience which illuminate the basis of awareness: the science of sleep and waking and the science of sight. These chapters explore a range of disorders - including epilepsy, narcolepsy, blindsight and hallucinations - which provide insights into the workings of consciousness. Human awareness has an ancient past, and Zeman provides a historical chapter which tracks the evolution of the human brain, the human species and human culture. The final chapters survey current theories of awareness, pioneering attempts to explain how the brain gives rise to experience, and ask whether any theory of consciousness could dispel our perplexity about the relationship between matter and mind. A practising neurologist, Zeman animates his text with examples from the behavioural and neurological disorders of his patients and from the expanding mental worlds of young children. His book is an accessible and enlightening explanation of how we come to be conscious.