Exploring Consciousness

By Rita Carter

University of California Press / Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 2000
319 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, index
ISBN: 0-520-23737-4
$34.95 / £20

Reviewed by Amy Ione
The Diatrope Institute
PO Box 12748
Berkeley, CA 94712-3748 USA

ione@diatrope.com

Rita Carter's Exploring Consciousness complements her Mapping the Mind, published in 1998. In this second book Carter, a science writer, successfully turns her investigations from the mind and brain to the somewhat more philosophical domain of consciousness studies. Linking the two books is the delectable layout and design of Weidenfeld and Nicolson. These visuals enhance the text and immediately draw the reader to the book. One example is the graphic depicting John Searle's famous Chinese Room. So many have critiqued Searle's argument that it frequently seems there is little to add to the ongoing debates. Although the visual doesn't present new insights, it is so delightful that it seems something had nonetheless been added to the discussion.

Turning to the text, one finds a representative group of ideas and contributions from key players in the field such as O'Regan, Chalmers, Dennett, and Blackmore (among others). Effectively integrating the spectrum of views, the book successfully conveys that particular theories are firmly established in consciousness studies, and that there is also much disagreement among theorists. The book benefits from the way Carter allows the many points of view to speak for themselves as they are used to structure the book's presentation and scope. This does not translate into a linear textbook, but is rather a mechanism that allows her to convey that the field is not easily defined. As a result, the discussion is woven around a number of trajectories and she never links them together in an easily characterized form. This is not to say the writing is confused or amorphous. To the contrary, it is because so many points of view are clearly stated that the book succeeds in mirroring the interdisciplinary framework that defines (or fails to define) consciousness studies. Overall the book's format might be characterized as a mirror of consciousness if one adopts a first-person perspective. If a third-person point of view is preferred, the idea of a mirror of consciousness research is the more appropriate characterization.

The format is perhaps best conveyed by an example of how the book works. My favorite section, a part of the Hard Problem chapter, demonstrates how the author balances points of view. Inserted in this chapter's general description of the 'hard problem' are discussions of this 'problem' by David Chalmers and Daniel Dennett. Placed face-to-face the two views are, in effect, given equal weight. Chalmers, of course, has championed the idea that we can never explain what he has termed the hard problem of consciousness. This, according to Chalmers, is the problem of experience and how physical processing gives rise to a rich inner life. He writes, " It seems objectively unreasonable that it should, and yet it does." (p. 50). Dennett, on the other hand, writes: "Chalmers' attempt to sort the 'easy' problems of consciousness from the really 'hard problem' is not, I think, a useful contribution to research, but a major misdirection of attention, an illusion-generator." (p. 51). Similarly, Stuart Hameroff and Alywn Scott debate their views on quantum theories of mind.

In Exploring Consciousness, as in consciousness studies overall, art is never adequately positioned. Like the prevailing two-culture (science and the humanities) paradigm of this field overall, this book relegates art to a secondary position. As is often is the case when the two-culture model is adopted, art is utilized to explain many key points but rarely discussed on its own terms. Even on the periphery, the inserted work is effective and compelling. Common perceptual illusions and the well-known drawings of autistics (e.g., Nadia) are in evidence. In addition, a number of less widely circulated visuals offer explanations of scientific research. For example, Bridget Riley's Cataract 3 (1967) adds a visual element to Carter's explanation of how V5 firing gives the illusion of movement. Mark Tansey's "The Innocent Eye Test" (1981) comments on the idea that we use interpretive mechanisms to translate the image of an animal on a canvas into the three-dimensional animal we accept as a 'realistic' depiction when we view the canvas. Tansey's painting was intended to commemorate an experiment of a cow failing to respond to a painting of a cow. Six self-portraits by an Alzheimer patient capture the degree to which the artist's idea of himself became increasingly demented.

Equally illuminating in terms of the consciousness research agenda is the discussion of the East/West, spiritual/scientific views of consciousness. This is standard fare in consciousness studies and so rightly included. However, in my opinion, this deeply ingrained way of formalizing some of the unresolved philosophical issues too often seems to undermine the field. In a global world that includes influences of African and South American countries it is absurd to continue to characterize ideas in terms of a nineteenth century East/West division. Moreover, when this is bound up with spirituality, cultural diversity is further undermined. Inevitably, as is the case in Exploring Consciousness, the next step is to insert personal experiences to discuss why we need to address the "spiritual" in consciousness studies. This, I believe, is the Achilles heel of the field. To be sure, Carter's use of her own experiences to explain this area of consciousness studies did not seem inappropriate when one considers how the field has evolved. This section did, however, bring to mind why consciousness has had so many problems achieving credibility.

In summary, Exploring Consciousness is a beautiful, accessible, and useful book. Ironically, it is the scope of the work and its diffuse style that make the book so readable. Readers will not feel they need to read straight through from beginning to end. Instead it is the kind of book that allows the reader to move around from subject to subject easily. For a coffee table book, Exploring Consciousness does a splendid job of presenting the field. It is accessible, despite its non-linearity. Although most of the thorny issues are put aside, the reader still walks away with a good sense of the issues, the spectrum of ideas, and consciousness studies in general. Readers who are just discovering this intriguing subject will find the easy to read textual introduction welcoming. Newcomers will also be pleased to find a bibliography that offers an avenue for further exploration of the issues and debates. Although it is not a textbook, nor intended to be one, Exploring Consciousness does offer an compelling introduction to the range of views contemporary thinkers bring to the ongoing mystery of consciousness.