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This is a very helpful explanation of some of the weird questions about consciousness and self. I give it a good rating, but I think it utterly fails in making the point Ms. Blackmore wants to make. It seems to me this is one of the better arguments for dualism that I've ever read. She starts with purely materialistic assumptions, mentioning but quickly ruling out any dualistic answers, and comes to conclusions that can't possibly be right. In the end she says we have to rule out the ideas that "experiences happen to someone" or that experiences flow through the conscious mind as a stream of ideas, etc. The problem is that I'm more sure of those things than I am of almost anything else. So if her assumptions and methods lead to those conclusions, I have to reject her assumptions and methods. (Of course that assumes she has reasoned correctly, which may not be the case -- so I'm not arguing for dualism.) The book reminds me a bit of a conversation I had with a Buddhist philosophy teacher in college who said that those who have attained enlightenment have realized that they are one with the universe, and that there is no distinction between them and others. I asked who put their shoes on in the morning, which seemed to confuse him, so I explained that neither the universe nor he nor I put their shoes on them. They did it themselves, which shows that this "I'm one with the universe" stuff is self-delusional bunk. Seems to me that Blackmore has decided to hitch her brain to a set of assumptions that lead to insanity, and rather than rejecting the assumptions, she's chosen to live with insanity.
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Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction
Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology.
Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas ANCIENT WARFARE Harry Sidebottom THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARCHITECTURE Andrew Ballantyne ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes ART HISTORY Dana Arnold ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin Atheism Julian Baggini Augustine Henry Chadwick BARTHES Jonathan Culler THE BIBLE John Riches BRITISH POLITICS Anthony Wright Buddha Michael Carrithers BUDDHISM Damien Keown CAPITALISM James Fulcher THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe CHOICE THEORY Michael Allingham CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead
CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon CONSCIOUSNESS Susan Blackmore Continental Philosophy Simon Critchley COSMOLOGY Peter Coles CRYPTOGRAPHY Fred Piper and Sean Murphy DADA AND SURREALISM David Hopkins Darwin Jonathan Howard Democracy Bernard Crick DESCARTES Tom Sorell DESIGN John Heskett Dinosaurs David Norman DREAMING J. Allan Hobson DRUGS Leslie Iversen THE EARTH Martin Redfern EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball EMOTION Dylan Evans EMPIRE Stephen Howe ENGELS Terrell Carver Ethics Simon Blackburn The European Union John Pinder
EVOLUTION Brian and Deborah Charlesworth FASCISM Kevin Passmore FEMINISM Margaret Walters FOUCAULT Garry Gutting FREE WILL Thomas Pink THE FRENCH REVOLUTION William Doyle Freud Anthony Storr Galileo Stillman Drake Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin Habermas Gordon Finlayson HEGEL Peter Singer HEIDEGGER Michael I