Download Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness AudioBook Free
"Consciousness matters. Probably it concerns more than anything. The goal of this booklet is to develop towards a conclusion of just what the matter is." Nicholas Humphrey starts this powerful exploration of the biggest of big questions with an issue to the audience, and himself. What's involved with "seeing red"? What is it like for us to see another person finding something red? Finding a red screen tells us a fact about something on the globe. But it also creates a fresh fact - a discomfort in each of our minds, the sensation of redness. And that is the mystery. Typical science up to now hasn't told us what conscious sensations are made of, or how exactly we access them, or why we've them in any way. From an evolutionary perspective, what's the point of consciousness? Humphrey offers a daring and novel solution, arguing that sensations aren't things that happen to us, they are things we do - while it began with our primordial ancestors' expressions of preference or disgust. Tracing the evolutionary trajectory through to humans, he shows how this has led to sensations playing the key role in the individual sense of Personal. The Personal, as we have now know it from within, seems to have interesting other-worldly properties. It leads us to believe in mind-body duality and the existence of a spirit. And such beliefs - even if mistaken - can be highly adaptive, because they raise the value we place on our own and others' lives. "Consciousness concerns," Humphrey concludes with impressive paradox, "because it is its function to subject. It's been made to create in humans a Personal whose life is worth seeking." The booklet is publicized by Harvard University Press.
