Toward a Science of Consciousness: The First Tucson Discussions and Debates (Complex Adaptive Systems)

Scientists and philosophers are focusing more intensely than ever on the nature of our human experience, resulting in a newly coalescing field of Consciousness Studies that has become a worldwide and highly interdisciplinary phenomenon.

Toward a Science of Consciousness marks the first major gathering -- a landmark event -- devoted entirely to unlocking the mysteries of consciousness. It explores the whole spectrum of approaches from philosophy of mind and dream research, to neuropsychology, pharmacology, and molecular dynamics, to neural networks, phenomenological accounts, and even the physics of reality. The aim is to lay a sound scientific foundation for future research while also reaching consensus on many scattered areas of inquiry.

Following an overview, fifty-five chapters are divided into ten sections: philosophy, cognitive science, medicine/pathology, neurology, neural networks, subneural biology, quantum theory, non-locality in space and time, hierarchical organization, and phenomenology.

In addition to the editors, who are, respectively, an anesthesiologist, a psychologist, and an applied mathematician, contributors include such luminaries as David Chalmers, Michael Conrad, Avshalom Elitzur, Owen Flanagan, David Galin, John Kihlstrom, Christof Koch, Benjamin Libet, Roger Penrose, Karl Pribram, Gary Schwartz, Petra Stoerig, John Taylor, Andrew Weil, Fred Wolf, and many others.

All of the editors teach at the University of Arizona. Stuart R. Hameroff is Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology, and Alfred W. Kaszniak is Professor of Psychology, Neurology, and Psychiatry; Alwyn C. Scott is Professor of Mathematics, and Founding Director, Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory.