From Brains to Consciousness? Essays on the New Sciences of the Mind [Hardcover]

Steven P. Rose (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 1999

Remarkable new findings in the neurosciences are leading to profound changes in our self-understanding. Neuroscientists now address some of the deepest problems of the human condition--from illnesses and disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to the search for the nature of conscio

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

"The vast sweep of advances in biological knowledge of the past half century has made the brain, and its ambiguous relationship to mind, science's last frontier," Rose writes. "Questions which for most of humanity's existence have been the province of philosophy and religion are now the stuff of day-to-day laboratory experiment." Rose, as director of the Brain and Behaviour Research Group at the Open University in England, was asked to organize a symposium on "Minds, Brains and Consciousness" at the 1996 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He did that and then went a step further, inviting the participants to rewrite their talks, in a way accessible to a general audience, as chapters for this book. The authors treat such intriguing subjects as memory, schizophrenia, consciousness and the aging of the brain. The work they describe has great portent for humanity. As Rose puts it: "To uncover the secrets of brain function offers the prospect of treating brain dysfunction, from the seemingly irreversible mental decline of Huntington's or Alzheimer's disease to the existential despair of schizophrenia. And if these conditions yield to molecular explanation, why should not also an even greater swath of problems in which there seems to be an uneasy fit between the individual mind and the society in which it is embedded?"

From the Inside Flap

An impressive group of contributors from diverse areas of inquiry ranging from molecular neuroscience to philosophy of mind. The reader will come away with a sense of the excitement of this area of research.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691004692
• ISBN-13: 978-0691004693
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,254,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #88 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence > Artificial Life

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good taste for inquire, March 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: From Brains to Consciousness? (Allen Lane Science) (Paperback)

This book is more related with question than answer. The authors focus on the success and the pit falls of the growing science of consciousness in a very elegant and explicit way. As neuroscientists, aware of the technological advance, they establish what the technology can do to uncover consciousness and what it can't do at the present time. In addition, they also comments on what is still needed in order to obtain more information about consciousness in live human beings. But most of all, they argue about the necessity of clarifying the definition of consciousness in order to lead to new discoveries.

The book could be divided in three parts. The first few chapters deal with basic concepts of the central nervous system from what a neuron is? to neurotransmitters, to the hypothesis of long-term potentiation as evidence of the physical existence of memory. In the middle, there are two excellent chapters on the problem with the diagnosis of dementia (Alzheimer's disease and squizophrenia) and how careful we have to be to establish generalization such as that when you get old you will be nuts, or is you find any of these symptoms your dealing with a squizophrenic. Then, the rest of the book is focus on consciousness, presented in a multidisciplinary approach. From artificial intelligent to philosophy.

Written for a general audience, From Brains to Consciousness is and excellent source to complement a text book on basic neuroscience in a way to arouse the curiosity and to debate fundamental things about being human with the students, in addition to break with the standard of learning facts.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very important work, October 18, 2001

By 

J. F. de Wolff (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Brains to Consciousness? Essays on the New Sciences of the Mind (Hardcover)

While every section of science studies brain, mind, culture and psychopathology on its own grounds, this collection of essays shows how all disciplines together can shed light on each other's field of interest and solve some tough question. When I purchased this book I was looking for a reflection of mr. Rose's ideology of science, which it turned out not to be. Nonetheless, it is very relevant and quite interesting!
(I later found more of mr. Rose's thoughts in a book he edited with a Hillary Rose - his wife? - called "Alas Poor Darwin". It shows the untenability of Evolutionary Psychology. His own article in that collection is by far the best of all. Also, his "Not in Our Genes" with Richard Lewontin is supposed to be a reflection of his philosophy of science.)

4.0 out of 5 stars Good., January 5, 2002

By 

Carlos Camara "marrorris2" (Monterrey, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: From Brains to Consciousness? Essays on the New Sciences of the Mind (Hardcover)

This is a grat book because it is multidiciplinary, but maybe content wise, it is not very original-nor focused in consciousness. There are papers dealing with squitzofrenia and ageing. Greenfield contribution presents her neuronal assemblie theory. Rose writes a great introduction to consciousness studies, and it alone pays for the entrance ticket. It is always interesting to read about Aleksanders work on artificial consciousness, and Penrose on Quantum Consciousness. The collection as a whole covers many topics, and it is a valuable contribution to consciousness studies. It is also not at all technical, so it can serve as an introductory work of the field. Again, originality and content do will not live to many expectations, but I certialy recomend the book.