TOPIC(S) and/or EVENT(S)
1) a. (initial thoughts of “what the book is about”): The
Conscious Mind, by David Chalmers,
is a philosophical work about “the hard problem of consciousness”. That is, the
problem of explaining how consciousness (as in phenomenal experience) can be
entailed by physical processes. Attempting to paraphrase and give a concise
summary of the book, such as I have done with my two previous literature
analyses, would be futile considering that it took Chalmers 433 pages of
cumulative, interconnected logic and deep philosophy to pin down (as in merely
identify/expound, not answer) the question/problem that he proposed. While I
cannot even begin to convey Chalmers’ elaborate arguments with my own words, I
can describe the problem itself a bit further. If asked, most people would say
that consciousness is generated by neural activity in the brain. This is a
common misconception. Cognitive functioning is completely different from
consciousness (again, consciousness in the sense of phenomenal experience).
Even defining consciousness is extremely difficult but, luckily, Chalmers
provided a pretty good depiction of it towards the beginning of the book. To do
this, he breaks the mind down into two different divisions: phenomenal and
psychological. The psychological parts of the mind are the supervenient on the
physical, reductively explainable, cognitive processes that are without a doubt
generated by the brain. The phenomenal aspects, however, are much more
intangible. Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, experiences, what something is like—abstractions
such as these that fail to supervene (both logically and naturally) on the
physical and that cannot be reductively explained are considered “phenomenal”.
It is the phenomenal aspects that are important here because, collectively,
they almost entirely comprise consciousness. The gist here is that, both
individually and collectively, these phenomenal aspects are irreducible, and
inexplicable by normal, epistemological means. Thus, the main basis of the
book: introducing this problem, providing evidence and arguments for it, and
explaining why it is unlikely that any theory could ever solve this problem in
its entirety.
b. (One clear
statement boiling down my initial thoughts): The Conscious Mind, by David
Chalmers, is a philosophical work about how we have been, and are likely to
remain unable to explain consciousness in physical terms.
2) Chalmers wrote The Conscious Mind to organize and
put forth the theories and arguments that he and his colleagues had been
working on for many years. According to the introduction, Chalmers’ fascination
with consciousness quickly consumed him and transformed from an interest, to a
life’s work. The result—a brilliant piece that openly and thoroughly addresses
the difficult issues that most scientists/philosophers cower away from and
sweep under the rug.
3) I chose this book because I felt that it would be a nice
next step in my quest to read difficult books and write analyses on them the
night before they’re due… In all seriousness, I chose this book because the
subject matter is absolutely central to my interests. I’ve been intrigued by
consciousness since before I even knew what it was so, needless to say, when I
came across a highly-recommended book entitled The Conscious Mind, it
instantly appealed to me. This book was brought to my attention by a reference
in my last “literature analysis book”, Proof Of Heaven by Dr. Eben
Alexander. While I found The Conscious Mind to be supremely interesting,
I’m not going to lie; it wasn’t one of those books that I just couldn’t put
down. The difficulty, the complexity, and the sheer length of the book made it
tough to get through at times. Such is the nature of the beast with books of
this sort though, so I knew what I was getting myself into. I must say,
however, that this book was particularly challenging. I would not recommend it for the faint of heart.
4) I absolutely found The Conscious Mind realistic.
The central arguments were tied together
with impeccable, air-tight logic; creating a very compelling case. Because many of the ideas that Chalmers
proposed were new and/or unfamiliar, he placed a lot of focus on solidifying
the veracity of his claims. And solidify he did; he truly accounted for every
angle in assembling his argument. As a very meticulous individual myself, I
have a deep respect for the amount of effort that was put into making The
Conscious Mind the textual fortress that it is. *An interesting side-note
relating to this: The Conscious Mind was published in 1996, yet it is
possibly the only abstract/controversial book I have read that, when searched
on Google, yields no accusations of being anti-scientific. In fact, I could
find no noteworthy rebuttals whatsoever. Some tepid reviews were present, of
course, but no one seemed to contend the information itself.*
PEOPLE
There were NO characters at all in The Conscious
Mind.
STYLE
1) I do not remember encountering any tools from fictional writing in The Conscious
Mind. Chalmers used some analogies to help readers relate to what he was
saying and to help connect different arguments, but that was the extent of his
literary device usage. Unfortunately, I read The Conscious Mind on a Nook,
and I am not willing to painstakingly click through the 2,000+ Nook slides that
make up the book in order to search for specific examples.
2) Chalmers didn’t use lengthy descriptions of places or
people, nor did he focus on action or dialog. This is because none of those
elements are even present in The Conscious Mind. The book consists
entirely of philosophical, logical reasoning, with a subtle pinch of intuition. This choice dried the book out immensely, of course, but
it was the author’s only real option if he wanted the book to be effective (which it undoubtedly is).
3) To be honest, there wasn’t even a mood (that I picked up
on) to The Conscious Mind. There was no story being told, only
information being provided and arguments being made. The text had an expository
“feel” to it, I suppose, but, to me, that is more of a style than a mood (I
differentiate the two).
4) The information in the introduction, combined with the
quality of this groundbreaking book, leads me to believe that Chalmers is/was very passionate about the subject. Creating such a high caliber
philosophical piece takes an extraordinary amount of effort and dedication. That type of drive is simply not found in those who are not inspired by their work.
5) There were very few external resources utilized in The
Conscious Mind. The book was constructed solely using the original ideas of Chalmers and his colleagues.
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