Hardback with dust wrapper. Clean black boards with red lettering on the spine. Lightly rubbed at board edges. Head and tail of spine lightly bumped. Pastedowns, free endpapers, title pages are evenly, lightly discoloured, with age.Some light pencil markings throughout. Binding is tidy and neat. Edges of pages are lightly discoloured, moreso at the head edge, else this book is in good condition. Dust wrapper is discoloured and thumbed. Some scratches and indents when held up to the light. Rubbed, some creasing and general wear and tear, else in good condition. *We always describe the faults of our books meticulously but they usually present better than they sound.

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Bibliographic Details

Title

SEEING RED: A Study in Consciousness

Publisher

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Publication Date

2006

Language

English

ISBN 10

0674021797

ISBN 13

9780674021792

Binding

Hardcover

Edition

1st Edition

Condition

Good

Dust Jacket Condition

Good

Weight

285 grams

Seller catalogs

Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

"Consciousness matters. Arguably it matters more than anything. The purpose of this book is to build towards an explanation of just what the matter is."

Nicholas Humphrey begins this compelling exploration of the biggest of big questions with a challenge to the reader, and himself. What's involved in "seeing red"? What is it like for us to see someone else seeing something red?

Seeing a red screen tells us a fact about something in the world. But it also creates a new fact--a sensation in each of our minds, the feeling of redness. And that's the mystery. Conventional science so far hasn't told us what conscious sensations are made of, or how we get access to them, or why we have them at all. From an evolutionary perspective, what's the point of consciousness?

Humphrey offers a daring and novel solution, arguing that sensations are not things that happen to us, they are things we do--originating in our primordial ancestors' expressions of liking or disgust. Tracing the evolutionary trajectory through to human beings, he shows how this has led to sensations playing the key role in the human sense of Self.

The Self, as we now know it from within, seems to have fascinating other-worldly properties. It leads us to believe in mind-body duality and the existence of a soul. And such beliefs--even if mistaken--can be highly adaptive, because they increase the value we place on our own and others' lives.

"Consciousness matters," Humphrey concludes with striking paradox, "because it is its function to matter. It has been designed to create in human beings a Self whose life is worth pursuing."

About the Author

Nicholas Humphrey is School Professor in the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science at the London School of Economics.

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Uncle Peter's Books is a general secondhand bookshop located in the village of Clunes, which is located between Lismore and Byron Bay in northern New South Wales. Uncle Peter's Books has been in business since January 1997. The shop holds about 25,000 books across a range of categories. There is a large fiction section, arranged alphabetically by author, which includes crime fiction, science fiction and literature, paperbacks and hardbacks, first editions and reading copies. Other categories include Art, Architecture, Photography, Craft, Australiana, Biography, History, Science, Technical, Health, Travel, Antarctic, Aviation, Mountaineering, Cooking, Sport, Military, Reference, True Crime, Philosophy, Animals, Gardening, Myths, New Age, Children's, Poetry, Drama, Humour, and Classics.

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Uncle Peter's Books
29 Main St, Clunes, NSW, 2480, Australia

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