A good overview of the field organised by dominant themes. ( )

It took me a long time to slog all the way through this. After all, it really is a college textbook more than anything else. However, even years later I find myself recalling things from it and have a real appreciation both for the author's writing and the subject itself. I do occasionally go back and read small sections. ( )

Who hasn’t wondered about their awareness, their perception, and their experience of the world around them? I think it’s a rare person who hasn’t thought about these things from time to time. In Consciousness: An Introduction, Susan Blackmore presents the views, research, and conclusions the philosophical and scientific communities have developed. This is a potentially complicated subject, and Blackmore writes with enough clarity to make understanding easy.

Full review: http://libwen.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/consciousness-an-introduction-by-susan-bl... ( )

Textbook for one of the modules I teach. Good, clear. Plugs Buddhism at the end. ( )

Cognitive Science is a broadreaching attempt at integrating all sciences which deal with the workings of the brain, and how subjective awareness of that action works. Given the multiple sciences involved, no one book will be able to do more than give a general overview. And, almost all that I've seen fail at even that. C:AI is the only one that I have no hesitation in recommending for that purpose.

It starts out with a warning that you're not going to be the same after reading it, and this was certainly my experience. It's a forced look into the workings of your own mind, and there's bound to be something in there which you've been oblivious to the true nature of.

The only possible downside is a sometimes odd return, again and again, to the opinions of Daniel Dennet. However, he happens to be one of the few philosophers whose work doesn't frustrate me with its distaste of actually testing theory. ( )