Nicholas K. Humphrey

Tries to explain what consciousness is and how it evolved. I'm not sure I followed it all, and I'm also not sure that there weren't some unfollowable gaps in the reasoning. But there were some very interesting ideas and most of the writing was clear, if you can keep track of the few words that he invents. A fascinating subject!

Nick Humphrey's take on the origins and role of consciousness in humans and other animals, of interest to anyone with an appetite for contemporary philosophy of mind, in particular the relationship between the internal world of mental experience and the so-called neurological correlates of consciousness. Humphrey's main message, after presenting his own functionalist (or functionalist-inspired) view, is that consciousness is evolutionarily adaptive in humans and, to a lesser extent, nonhuman show more animals with less-developed self-awareness.

I found it an enjoyable exploration of that line of thought. show less

In a Dark Time will shock, warn, and ultimately inspire those many people who share the perception that humankind now stands on the brink of self-annihilation but who believe, with Theodore Roethke, that "in a dark time, the eye begins to see.....

Charming, I guess I should say--full of the finest in literary quotations, funny, humble (in an oddly arrogant way), smart--but not very satisfying. Humphrey describes a phenomenology of consciousness that usually makes little sense to me, as if he were describing humans and I'm really a dolphin, or something--so much of just left me scratching my head. He argues that consciousness is adaptive, and I'm inclined to agree, but he could have just said that, I could have just nodded and then show more gone of to read something else, maybe something about Vikings or whatever. show less