Max Velmans

Almost as good an academic compendium of current thinking in the philosophy and science of consciousness as you could reasonably expect. It was breathtaking in its comprehensiveness and scope, and there were some wonderful, fascinating chapters (the Gazzaniga, Baars, Tononi, Rees, and Crick chapters were especially strong - all were from the science half) amidst the 55 on offer. The chapters all offered useful further reading sections, and many offered useful summaries. However, the structure of the book was rather bizarre, for instance including a "contemporary theories" section, which could so easily have been subsumed into the philosophical and scientific sections. There were also some rather poor chapters, and I would have preferred an abstract to start each chapter. Leaving these niggles aside, though, this is a brilliant collection and well worth at least dipping into for anyone who has an interest in the subject (a relevant university background would make the book a lot more worthwhile).… (más)