Introducing Consciousness

Papineau accomplishes his goal with this book, about as well as could be expected, thus the 5 stars. I was very pleased with this introduction to consciousness. It was a nice refresher/primer for someone with familiarity in the field. The cartoon-style presentation enhances learning about a fascinating subject, in a balanced manner, at an appropriate level for an introduction. Papineau artfully leads you through the history of development of philosophical, theological and scientific thought regarding consciousness, at the same time guiding the reader through the reasoning behind each belief system, while introducing major questions and important scientific discoveries at relevant times. Any book this length will have shortcomings, but overall I preferred it to Susan Blackmore's "Consciousness: a very short introduction," which was also an excellent book -- different approach, less balanced (would give that one 4 stars) -- though they make nice complements to each other (read both if you can).

Yes, this book explains a lot about consciousness. I own a lot of books from the Introducing-series, and most of them are truly excellent. This books gives a philosophical overview of consciousness. Not a biological or psychological overview. It is a pity that it devotes very little space to SELF-consciousness though. But still: buy it, read it, and read it every year once more.

I must admit that I'm a big fan of the "introducing" books but the reason that I decided to review this one was because of its particular quality in laying and out and illustrating the main theories discussed. In "Introducing Consciousness" Papineau skillfully and chronologically weaves the historical quest for consciousness with relevant discussion of the main theories advanced. In this way, Aristotle and DeCartes and Skinner and Dennett are made to jump off the page with words that are just as descriptive of their views as the accompanying artwork is. Like all generalized introductions, there could be some quibbling on the details like where the mind-brain discussion is alluded to smoke coming from a steam engine (in so describing the phenomenon, the authors inadvertantly tip their hands as materialists) but on the whole this very brief readable 171 page illustrated book is well worth the time.

I have just finished reading "Introducting Artificial Intelligence", "Introducing Mind & Brain", and "Introducing Consciousness" from Icon books. In reading these back to back, it reminded me that are all different views on the same subject. This was a rewarding experience for me. I recommend that you read these books together if you can.

As a basic introduction to the philosophical study of the mind, this is by far the best book I've ever come across. If only it had been in print when I was a first-year grad student... I could have understood the material *so* much better! Papineau does an excellent job of introducing the main areas (e.g., the subjective aspect of mental states, the representational character of certain mental states, the difference between a third-person perspective and a first-person perspective, mental causation, and the nature of consciousness itself), the main arguments (e.g., conceivability arguments, Jackson's knowledge argument, inverted qualia thought experiments...) and pretty much all the main theories concerning what the mind is, and how it relates to the brain (e.g., substance dualism, functionalism, emergent supervenience, mind-brain identity, behaviorism, etc....). All the technical jargon has been either omitted or is gently introduced, which will greatly increase the beginner's ability to quickly grasp the material. Moreover, each page is illustrated in one way or another, which should be a great help as well. At times the authors whose views are under consideration (e.g., Descartes, Leibniz) are caricatured in the illustrations, which makes it fun for those already familiar with the philosophers in question- a sort of inside joke, if you will. My only disappointment with this approach is that the illustrator didn't draw a caricature of Dave Chalmers or John Searle. This is unfortunate, as they would make great caricatures! But I digress... I also think that Papineau should have noted that not all substance dualists are Cartesians, and he should have briefly described one or more non-Cartesian substance dualisms, such as those found in E.J. Lowe's book, Subjects of Experience, and William Hasker's, The Emergent Self. All in all though, this work is excellent- especially given the book's price and readability. In short, anyone interested in a readable, informative introduction to the philosophical study of the mind would be a fool to pass up this book!