Consciousness

A Very Short Introduction

By: Susan Blackmore

Narrated by: Zehra Jane Naqvi

Consciousness, "the last great mystery for science", remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion?

Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories, while also outlining the amazing pace of discoveries in neuroscience. Covering areas such as the construction of self in the brain, mechanisms of attention, the neural correlates of consciousness, and the physiology of altered states of consciousness, Susan Blackmore highlights our latest findings.

©2017 Susan Blackmore (P)2021 Tantor

Not sure I left understanding more that I started

Solidly works in communicating the basic space of what we know and just how much we don't know about consciousness. The book was OK. Just not sure I liked how it was structured, but also not sure how to structure this in a VSI that would be much different.

Great Book, Great Narration

This is a fantastic introduction to one of the biggest mysteries in science, consciousness. Blackmore covers all the bases. You don't need to be a neuroscientist to understand or appreciate this thoughtful introduction to this important topic. The narrator, Zehra Jane Naqvi, does a fantastic job reading the book. She is extremely clear with the right amount of inflection and nuance to make the listening experience highly enjoyable. Another great book in Oxford's Very Short Introduction series.

Biased in its conclusions, judgemental of conflicting opinions while still having a lot of science in there

"Consciousness is an illusion" is a direct quote from the concluding chapter. Sometimes callous but mostly scientific content. it came off as biased uncompassionate