Book Review, "Consciousness - A Very Short Introduction" by Susan Blackmore

Consciousness – A Very Short Introduction

By Susan Blackmore

A fascinating read that summarizes concepts about one of the great mysteries of life: Human Consciousness, or The Conscious Experience.

One attraction of the book is that it is short; comprising less than 150 pages.  For no matter how deep or penetrating an idea, we know that it has to end in a reasonable time.  The author has an easy facility with language and the text is well written.

After analyzing ideas, the author draws some conclusions.  There are two memorable ideas in this book:

1)” Mind is what the brain does.”  There is no separate conscious entity like “The soul”, “The personality”, or “Thought” that is linked in some unknown, or metaphysical way, to the brain; or body.  The conscious thought that we are aware of (or unaware of as the case may be) occurs entirely in the brain.

There is no “Duality.”   Descartes was wrong. There is no separate “mind.”  There is no “Soul” that holds our personality.  As the Dalai Lama says, “When you die, YOU cease to exist.”

2) “We begin to act before we consciously decide to act.”  We don’t really have “free will,” but we do have “free won’t.”

Brain scan studies show that before we have a conscious decision to move, or act, the brain has already started processes that will facilitate this behavior.  Then we have a conscious decision to Act, or NOT Act.  If we decide to act then these processes will continue to operate in the typical way.  However, if we decide to NOT Act, all brain behavior subsides and we are generally unaware of this fact.

This is why, in my opinion, we get fatigued in crowds, or with many false alarms.  There are many triggers to behavior that we are subconsciously dismissing by exercising our “Free Won’t.”  This is a lot of work for our brain.

Conclusion

The book “Consciousness – a Very Short Introduction” by Susan Blackmore is highly recommended.  Succinct and readable, it challenges the mind with ideas about mind in a thoughtful and enjoyable manner.

copyright(c)2015

William Schaeffer