Dialogues on Consciousness
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βDavid Shields
If only more philosophy books were as original, interesting and readable as this one.Β A beautifully clear and thought-provoking exposition in the form of a Platonic dialogue.
βIain McGilchrist
Plenty of food-for-thought without the existential angst and ennui.
βCounterpunch
Over a period of many years, the celebrated English novelist Tim Parks and the Italian philosopher Riccardo Manzotti have been discussing the nature of consciousness. Not long ago, Parks suggested to his friend that they condense their exchanges βinto a series of focused dialogues to set out the standard positions on consciousness, and suggest some alternatives.β Fifteen of the resultant conversations were edited by Parks and published inΒ The New York Review of BooksΒ onlineβone of its most popular features ever.
Now collected into one slim but thought-provoking volume, the dialogues reveal the profound scholarship of the two men. Their talks touch upon Aristotle and William James, the Higgs boson and Descartes, and include topics such as βWhere Are Words?β, βThe Body and Usβ, βThe Reality of Dreamsβ, βThe Object of Consciousnessβ, and finally βConsciousness: What Is It?β. For those of us searching for insight into some of lifeβs most basic puzzlesβhow do we think? how do we perceive one another, and ourselves?βDialogues on ConsciousnessΒ will take its place alongside other classics of philosophy.
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Tim Parks, novelist, essayist and translator, is the author of nineteen works of fiction, includingΒ Europa, shortlisted for the Booker. He is a regular contributor to both theΒ New York Review of BooksΒ and theΒ London Review of Books. He lives in Italy, where he teaches literature and translation studies at IULM in Milan.
Riccardo Manzotti isΒ Professor of Philosophy at IULM University (Milan). He holds a PhD in robotics, and is the author of more than fifty scientific papers and several books. A former Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT, he is now visiting professor at UAEU University (Emirates).
