Alva Noë

I'm not qualified to fully judge all the merits of his arguments, but it all seems to make sense. That there is no part of the brain that creates consciousness or that the brain itself is consciousness, but instead consciousness is how the brain interacts with the world. It would be good to read a couple times, and also some long reviews and some books he cites. The book is well-written and easy to understand.

I thought I'd like this much more, but I was disappointed. Noë's premise is a philosophical examination of the science of the mind and posits that we should no longer accept the belief that consciousness resides in the brain. Basically he's arguing the opposite of the Free Will chapter in 13 Things That Don't Make Sense. While it's an argument I'd like to accept, I feel that Noë never really shows evidence for his thesis and that a lot of the complex language he uses serves to obfuscate show more rather than illuminate. It's just as likely that most of this went over my head though, so maybe I'm not the best person to review this book. show less

Possibly the single worst book I have ever read. I only have myself to blame. I should have been more careful to investigate beyond the intriguing title and realized it was a philosophy book. On the bright side, maybe somebody will use it successfully as evidence to end the charlatanism of offering a degree in such a "discipline".

Wish I'd known about LT member WANACK's rule before reading this one. It had some interesting sections, and some that challenged me to re-read and understand, but overall it was not worth the time spent in reading it.