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Consciousness is what makes ‘me’ unique from all the other living things in the world. It is the sum of everything I can remember and can call to mind, everything I am currently experiencing and thinking about, and all the things that make me feel what it feels like to be ‘me‘.
Underwood, Richard. 2025
A Brief History of Consciousness: From Individual Consciousness to Quantum Consciousness. Consciousness appears to be something more than the simple interaction of our brain cells, but the cause, purpose, and location of our consciousness are all hotly disputed by scientists. This book examines current research into consciousness and the scientific evidence as to what it is and how it works.
I know ‘I’ am conscious, but what is consciousness anyway, and who or what am ‘I’.
This book is about phenomenal, or subjective, consciousness, the inner world of my thoughts, feelings, and emotions. It is about what it feels like to be ‘me’.
Consciousness makes ‘me’ unique from all the other people in the world. It is the sum of everything I can remember and can call to mind, everything I am currently experiencing and thinking about, and all the things that make me feel what it feels like to be ‘me’.
When it comes to consciousness, there is nothing to see and little to examine. The only consciousness we can examine in real depth over a prolonged period of time is our own, and even our own consciousness is a mystery to us.
Philosophers, neuroscientists, psychologists and others have all failed to agree on what consciousness is, where it can be found, or even what it takes to be conscious. That hasn’t prevented a plethora of theories, none of which have achieved universal scientific acceptance, and most of which are examined in this book.
At the end of the book, the author tackles the thorny question of what happens to our consciousness after death, and points out that whether we believe consciousness transcends death depends entirely upon which theory of consciousness we believe.
A Brief History of Consciousness is part of the Science of Life and Consciousness Series.
