Consciousness: A User’s Guide

The book is organised into five principal parts and nine chapters. Part I introduces consciousness by examining its terminology, conceptual history, cross-cultural vocabulary, and the basic structure and functioning of the nervous system. Part II studies the capacity for consciousness through brain activity, sleep, arousal, anaesthesia, epilepsy, coma, trance, and clinical methods for assessing awareness. Part III investigates the contents of consciousness, focusing on vision, sensory processing, attention, recognition, imagination, hallucination, agnosia, neglect, and blindsight. Part IV traces the origins of consciousness through the evolution of life, nervous systems, the human brain, and culture, while also considering the adaptive value of awareness. Part V reviews major scientific theories and philosophical interpretations of consciousness, including the relation between experience and neural activity, the possibility of conscious machines, animal and alien minds, and the consequences of neurological determinism for freedom and responsibility.