New Directions in Consciousness Studies SoS theory and the nature of time [Paperback]

New Directions in Consciousness Studiesdescribes a range of fresh ideas which promise to significantly advance scientific understanding of human nature. Written in non-specialized language, the book draws upon concepts and research from history, philosophy, neuroscience and physics to delineate new approaches to the study of consciousness.

Early chapters deal with a range of ideas about our nature, and suggest that mind can usefully be viewed as a type of dynamic landscape. The account shows how our minds relate to their societies, brains and bodies and how they differ from computers. Later chapters develop a theory of the basis of consciousness (SoS theory). Using the physical concept of broken symmetry the author shows how conscious mind may be rooted in temporality; a view that is supported by the occurrence of a wide range of anomalous phenomena. Potentially valuable future lines of research are identified.

This is a unique and engaging book that will appeal to students and academics in the field of consciousness studies and other readers with an interest in consciousness.

1. Swings and Roundabouts  2. Picturing Mind  3. Wetware  4. On Time  5. New Frontiers  6. Broken Symmetry  7. Qualia  8. Rocks from the Sky (part 1)  9. Rocks from the Sky (part 2)  10. Life at the Edge  11. New Directions  12. Speculations and Implications  13. Loose Ends and New Beginnings

For scientifically inclined readers who are not satisfied with current mechanistic approaches to the mind, this is the most interesting book on the Hard Problem of Consciousness to appear in recent years. In search of foundations of conscious activity in nature, Chris Nunn discusses promising research programs in Physics, Neuroscience and Psychology, and synthesises several decades of resel#)