Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological, and Neural Theories [Paperback]

Actually I would give this book 3.25 stars not 4. The book wants to be an objective and extremely comprehensive treatment of the subject. But what it appears to be is actually an enormous catalogue of almost every idea circulating or once circulating about consciousness. Since Rose says he wants to "just present the facts and the theories and let the reader decide for himself", for the most part you do not get any selective filtering of the myriad of ideas, or any really deep understanding of the topics, you just get a catalogue survey. In a few words it's really an undergraduate survey course in consciousness, and not a very good one at that. It is peppered with suggestions for "essay topics" (presumably for the undergraduate) and rather ridiculous topics at that. Also you generally do not hear Rose's voice or thinking. Yet unsettling as it is, within this seeming objectivity, Rose does express his opinion every now and then and in an uncomfortable off-hand and causal way, for example with words like, "this is dubious" without any further detail, and within this context of professed objectivity this is most uncomfortable. At some points in discussing what appear to many thinkers in the field to be the most promising theories of consciousness he actually "poh-poh's" these theories (HOT) and (HOP) theories as almost nonsense. In these cases we see where his true and (ill-based, in my opinion) sympathies lie. In an attempt to appear to give equal time to everyone and to list the pros and cons of everything (sometimes these pros or cons are quite thin and forced seemingly solely for the sake of completeness) you come away feeling that Rose is not really a good spokesman for this highly complex field. You come away feeling that he is writing this book to bring order into his own mind about these theories, but that he hasn't lived with this order for a long enough time to know what to do with it. There definitely is too much information and paradoxically not enough at the same time. For example the whole treatment of Qualia (one of the central issues in consciousness is unsatisfactorily treated and one could say almost lacking in its essential aspects). In some cases he spends an entire page detailing a theory only to end the discussion leaving out the essential central idea, incredible! The whole treatment of the philosophy of mind and its history is lacking and unsatisfactory. He also does not attempt to give the major definitions of what and how consciousness is defined by the major thinkers in the field, and how these definitions are often very problematic and unclear on what we are talking about. He avoids this completely. In addition essential bibliographic references of some of the major thinkers in this field are missing. What is needed here is more knowledgeable selectivity, more depth in fewer areas, and a personal better informed voice.
And just to give you some idea of the level of non-elegance and vulgar style and non-meticulous thinking that this author is capable of, and incredible as it may be to believe to find in an Oxford University Press publication, the author has even resorted to the depths of vulgarity and used the words "bullsh-t" on at least one occasion to describe the possibility of a theory's validity or non validity, INCREDIBLE! When you think that the study of consciousness must by necessity touch on the sacred, this book touches on the vulgar and profane, not only in its language but also in the preference it gives to certain authors who are at the same level of profanity as the author in their thinking about the mind.
However since there is a wealth of information presented, the knowledgeable reader can re-compile, and select and re-create a new work, which offers the "most important and most promising ideas about consciousness", and start reading one author's works ( whom he/she feels most sympathetic with)from the bibliography . The references and internet links may be helpful in this regard, but then again the reader is really being asked to do the work that Rose should have done. If an author does not have a viewpoint, and you do not hear his voice, if he just lists and presents information (in a troubling disproportionate way by giving equal time and space to items that are not equal in value), this is not an understanding of the field but just a compendium.

This is excellent introduction to Philosophy of mind and theories of Consciousness, which both academics and those who are new to the field will enjoy. Rose explains what can sometimes be very challenging concepts in clear, easy to understand english, and draws upon illuminating examples to highlight his points. Rose encourages the reader to think for themselves and to come to their own conclusions about what consciousness really is. Perhaps this book's greatest achievement is condensing all (and I mean, literally ALL) theories of consciousness into one resource. Moreover, this book is right up to date, citing resarch from 2005/6. This is one of the most enlightening books I have read. It has truly changed the way I think about the mind, consciousness, and even spirituality. Most importantly, it was made me question what consciousness actually is. I can't recommend this book enough.

David Rose is to be congratulated on taking a complex subject and making it accessible. From the beginning the reader is encouraged not to look for the Right Answer to the problem of consciousness but to study the theories and decide for themselves. This is aided enormously by the layout of the book. The theories of consciousness are clearly presented and the arguments against are explained. It is then left to the reader to decide. I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding this fascinating subject!