Now that I’ve finished Chalmers’ primary work on consciousness, I’ll be taking a brief break from more or less purely philosophical treatments. I finally managed to pick up a copy of Crick and Koch’s The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach from my university’s library. I’ve always had a great deal of respect for the authors, insofar as they were, and still are to an extent, among the first and few to assume a “scientific” approach in tackling consciousness, while admitting that there may be many things that purely empirical scientific inquiry will not be able to answer—notably the problem of qualia. Their final conclusion on the matter may not sit well with me once I discover it, but the mere fact that they take the time to discuss the problem is promising (many in the “mainstream” would do nothing more than dismiss the problem outright, denying that it is even a problem).
Regardless of the outcome, I am positive that the next few weeks will provide plenty of excitement and new ideas for me to consider on my own quest for consciousness.
reluctantDualist 