Consciousness and Human Identity - Hardcover

What processes of the brain or the mind can explain the uniquely personal experience we have of smelling a rose, or feeling the pain of toothache, or seeing the point of a newspaper cartoon, or sensing a pang of post-modernist angst in the run up to the Millennium. The phenomenon of human higher-order consciousness - that there is something that it is like for human beings to experience the world - has puzzled philosophers, naturalists and theologians down the ages. Now, somewhat belatedly, consciousness has caught the interest of scientists, some of whom believe they are on the brink of discovering its basis in neurobiological processes. This book, drawing together leading figures from the spheres of science and philosophy, is about the prospects of finding a scientific explanation of consciousness. It also considers how our view of ourselves could be affected by such a scientific explanation. Until recently, the vast complexity of the brain had kept researchers from tackling the thorny topic of consciousness.