my mind on books

A few quick links …

1. Self-deception bibliography – part of the “Consciousness in the Natural World Project” from the University of Stirling. The bibliography & website in general don’t seem to have been updated for a few years but the bibliography has separate sections for articles and books, many with abstracts.

2. The introduction to ‘How to Read a Novel’ by John Sutherland is online at the Guardian, in which Sutherland touches on the interesting question “why we need so much narrative in our lives” and suggests that the rise of the novel in the 18th century “revolutionised” human consciousness….

3. For those who feel a need for narrative in the form of a “visionary thriller,” Discipline: A Novel by Paco Ahlgren sounds intriguing and has garnered lots of 5-star customer reviews at Amazon. (interview, website)

Metapsychology, a great site for book reviews, has published a review of Self-Consciousness, the recent book by Sebastian Rödl.

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The Library Thing page for the tag “consciousness”

Top ten “most often tagged Consciousness” as of 7/27/07 (with links to Amazon info):

1. Consciousness Explained by Daniel C. Dennett

2. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes

3. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory by David J. Chalmers

4. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness by Antonio R. Damasio

5. The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self & Soul by Daniel C. Dennett and Douglas Hofstadter

6. Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness by Daniel C. Dennett

7. The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size by Tor Norretranders

8. Consciousness: An Introduction by Susan Blackmore

9. Wider than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness by Gerald M. Edelman

10. The Mystery of Consciousness by John R. Searle

I’ve read #1, 2, 4, 7; have in my library #3, 5, 6.

[Note: I’ve set up links to open in a new window because I thought that would work better with a list — but it might conflict with pop-up blocking, so I apologize if that’s at all annoying.]

This week’s Science Weekly podcast from the Guardian includes interviews by Susan Blackmore with Daniel Dennett, V.S. Ramachandran, and Francis Crick, from her book Conversations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human.

Yesterday’s Zippy the Pinhead (7/1/07) explains it all…!