Conversations on Consciousness

Quotes:

"The question is, can science offer anything like that to keep mass societies coherent after all these metaphysical ideas have vanished, not only in professional philosophers and scientists, but in ordinary people as well? If everybody stopped believing in a soul, what effect would that actually have in the way we treat each other? All this may have cultural consequences which are very hard to assess presently; it may have a broad effect on the way we view each other, and it is very important that a crude, vulgar kind of materialism is not what actually follows on the heels of this neuroscientific revolution. For this, transported through the media, makes people believe in simplistic ideas such as that human beings are just machines, and that the concept of dignity is empty, and there never has been such a thing as reason, or responsibility." - Thomas Metzinger

"We all think we have free will, and there's no way we can think away our own free will, because even if you try to think it away in a decision-making situation—if you just say, 'well look, I'm a determinist so I just wait and see what happens'—that is itself intelligible to us only as an exercise of freedom." - John Searle

Paradigm shift

As my wife and I sat eating our crépes at a local boutique restaurant, I was drawn to the mason jar filled with "conversation starter" topics on popsicle sticks. One of the first ones I pulled out said "what is the nature of consciousness?"

Oh, where to begin! 

This book did what I believe the author set out to do; convey that among the world's foremost researchers and philosophers on consciousness there is almost no general consensus around what this is all about. 

I love that. And even more, I love that this book doesn't make any claims on a specific interpretation. Reading conflicting ideas feels so nourishing, and to have it all packaged into this book made it even better. If you have ever considered yourself someone to ponder, or more likely pontificate, on what consciousness means, you should read this book. 

Yes it's a little dated, for example they all take as fact that neural activity precedes decisions about an action (those experiments have since been thoroughly debunked), but it's a great slice of humble pie for anyone pompous enough to think they've got it all figured out.