Consciousness - John Parrington ****

Consciousness provides what is the arguably biggest gap we have in our scientific knowledge. Unlike quantum physics or the detail of cell biology, this is a subject we all experience directly in our everyday lives. We know that we appear to be conscious. But what consciousness really means, if it exist at all and how it can be studied scientifically are all issues that science bumps up against repeatedly.

John Parrington starts us of with some basic background to the history of consciousness 'science' from Artistotle, through Descartes to the modern distinction between the understanding of mechanisms for how we sense, remember, react to stimulus and so forth and the 'hard problem' of explaining the subjective sense of being us and our feelings.

Parrington argues that our human-style consciousness, which he suggests is different from that of other animals, is a consequence of our use of language and our ability to use tools to radically transform our environment, combined with the unique complexity of our brain structure. On a simplistic level, some of this is often countered by, for instance, pointing out that other animals communicate or use simple tools. But Harrington convincingly shows that the unique nature of human language, for example, is a structure of abstract symbols that make it possible to convey complex ideas that simply don't arise in other species.

It should be stressed that Parrington is no dualist. He goes into some detail of how he sees the human brain is capable of providing all that is necessary for consciousness. He compares human brains to those of other species, describing how they differ both in functionality of different brain regions and how those regions interact. He also introduces some ideas on the relevance of brain waves to coordinating this functionality.

There's a fair amount in this book that arguably isn't really about consciousness, leaving some familiar topics only loosely covered. Parrington touches on some well-known consciousness theories and research - for example, Nagel's famous paper on what it is to be a bat - but does not give a view of the various opposing theories on consciousness (including those who say that there is no such thing). Similarly, free will only gets a fairly summary exploration. Instead, Parrington uses this compact book to put across his own viewpoint This isn't a bad thing, though in a book that purports to give an overview of a scientific topic it would have been good to have explored alternatives a little more. It's not unlike a book on string theory that says very little about loop quantum gravity.

Despite the reader being taken in a particular direction, though, this doesn't stop the book providing an interesting and thought-provoking exploration of consciousness that underlines human exceptionalism without suggesting the need for any non-physical component.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free hereShort