Consciousness Explained (Penguin Science) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

This rather long and sometimes rambling book achieves at least two thirds of what I expected. Dennett completely demolishes the Cartesian Dualism model, showing through anecdote and experiment that ideas of a separate mind and body are completely out of touch with reality.
A large portion of the book is dedicated to dismantling ideas that are built on this model, I found the non-linear, revisionist perception of time to be one of the most powerful and thought provoking revelations.
Drawing from many fields of science (computing, psychology, neurology and evolutionary biology to name a few) he then goes on to describe his alternative model for consciousness. His multiple drafts theory is empirical, making falsifiable scientific predictions and I believe his description to be an accurate one.

The book is sometimes quite difficult to follow, philosophy is rarely an easy read but I've come to expect popular science writers to speak plainly, where Dawkins coins snappy and self-explanatory words such as "meme" or "concestor" Dennett's "heterophenomenology" is a nine syllable monster. Also it is not a riveting read, it has taken me almost a year to finally finish this book. I enjoyed the experiments, anecdotes, evolutionary biology and computer science much more than the reams of prelude and philosophical reasoning. In my opinion it would have been better as two books, one a highly technical exploration of the philosophy of mind and another popular science for the layman. I would have enjoyed the latter much more.

Finally I think that the title is misleading, it did transform my understanding of human consciousness but it raised as many new questions as it answered. I am no closer to understanding what consciousness is, what it means to be, or whether consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe or an emergent pattern in matter. Perhaps "Consciousness Described" would have been a more fitting title.

"Everything But Consciousness Explained." Not my quote but it is totally true. All the book's explanations of the systems associated with consciousness and perception are marvellous. There is a lot to learn here and the mechanistic approach is admirable. However, this book doesn't deal with consciousness itself.

After discussing consciousness with various people, some well educated in philosophy and science, others who are insightful and others who are just regular guys, I have come to a conclusion. There are some people who do know what is meant by consciousness and there are others who just don't. Even some of the quite clever people. It's not about explaining it, I mean just knowing what is meant by consciousness as a word when used in a normal sentence. Daniel Dennett, unfortunately doesn't seem to know.

The trouble is, all of the brilliant explanations of what happens inside a brain make you forget that the initial problem wasn't to do with how the brain can process information. It was, how can we be _aware_ of information. Or indeed, _aware_ at all. If you can see the difference then you know what the word consciousness refers to.

It's a bit like if Newton had written a book called Forces Explained. Newton deduced that forces exist and elegantly expressed their interactions with matter. However, he was well aware that he didn't actually know what forces were. He was just very good at dealing with their consequences in terms of mathematical descriptions. D.D. explains many of the consequences and issues of having consciousness but fails to understand that these don't explain consciousness itself at all.

I'm rating it high because it's a good book. Just don't be misled by the title.

In his lectures, Dan Dennett likes to quote his friend Lee Siegel who's done extensive work on magic:

"I'm writing a book on magic," I explain, and I'm asked, "Real magic?" By real magic people mean miracles, thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers. "No," I answer: "Conjuring tricks, not real magic." Real magic, in other words, refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic"

This sets up Dennett's argument about consciousness nicely. A lot of people firmly believe that consciousness is some kind of magical property which couldn't possibly simply be a process of mere matter. Or as Dennett states, you have all the brain processes which come together and 'then a miracle happens' and voila, consciousness. Is this really the case? People used to believe in some kind of life force; how could life emerge out of mere matter?! Then the likes of Darwin and Dawkins showed us exactly how: no miracles, no magic, life emerges out of complexity. Is it really such a stretch to believe that the same can happen with consciousness? Dennett doesn't think so.

The hyperbole of the title aside, he doesn't wholly explain consciousness so much as demonstrate what it is not. This book is more of a starting point or a road sign which finally points towards a feasible explanation. Rather than trying to hunt down pixie dust, he says that the Cartesian Theatre absolutely does not exist and therefore we must radically re-think how we approach this topic. Despite what his detractors say, Dennett is not saying that consciousness does not exist; he's telling us that it's not what it seems. Instead, he proposes his own 'Multiple Drafts' theory which throws out the theatre altogether. Agree with him or not, it's hard to walk away from this book without having your confidence about what consciousness is severely shaken.

Be warned, this book is heavy going in places and for most will involved a dramatic shift in perspective (which explains why Dennett is so widely misunderstood and vilified). However, if you are serious about finding out who you really are and open minded enough to accept the possibility that things aren't exactly what they appear to be, then this book is essential reading. That said, I would recommend at least having read (and properly understood!) Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene' and a decent introduction to the topic of consciousness before attempting this. Sue Blackmore has written two excellent introductory texts (Consciousness: An Introduction & Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction), either of which would be an ideal starting point.