BTW, since I can't post in that thread, thanks for the thread on Eccles's books. I took a stroll to the library and checked out three of them, and one other (they are at my office now, or I would tell you that author too). A couple of thoughts--one...three books, three completely different areas of the Library of Congress system. Apparently it is not known if this is psychology, philosophy, or metaphysics. A first glance at the most recent book confirms this. Second thing...man, there are meters and meters of bookshelf space devoted to the topic of consciousness, in each of the three areas of the library. Too bad you are opposed to reading what others have to say on the issue. Third thing...the other book I got was very eye-opening. I am already more impressed by this other author than by Eccles, by a long shot. (yes, I will explain why when I post about it.)

One of the books contains not just Eccles, but others responding to him--an edited collection, in fact. It will be interesting to see the give and take.

(oh...and the figures in the Eccles book are interesting...very detailed pictures of the structures and actions of the synapse, detailed schematic diagrams of nerve networks...and a strangely simple flowchart detailing a connection between the physical and mental worlds, without any mechanism there to explain the connection. My quick impression, subject to change of course, is that this is the pattern of the book; long on physiological detail, long on hypotheticals about a mentalistic self, extremely short on how the two are alleged to interact. I actually spent half an hour trying to find out how that diagram claimed the mental and physical interacted, and there was nothing in the chapter that suggested any mechanism whatsoever. I can't believe Eccles would do that...so time to read more thoroughly. I hope to be proven wrong, because I respect his earlier work, but I think it quite possible that the review I linked earlier is correct, and that Eccles allowed his preconceived beliefs to influence his perception of the data.)

Oh, and...the other author I picked up...for anyone who is interested in what science has to say about consciousness...(maybe even you, Iacchus!)...the author is U. T. Place. (he is googleable...the guy in this link, for instance....)

For the record, this thread is another Iacchus split--I did not start this thread with the intention of reviewing Eccles's book. I would not call the opening post here a "review" at all; I would not presume to write a book review based on an hour's perusal of a book. I would be happy to review this book once I have read it, but it should be clear to the reader of this thread that the opening post is not intended as a book review.


Iacchus, when you split off these threads, perhaps it would be a good idea for you to start them off with a post of your own, explaining the split. That way the threads are clearly marked as being started by you. With the splittings, I think it is entirely possible that you have started more threads under my name than I have!

The problem with that is that it indexes the posts by the earliest date, in which case if I add a new post it will always show up at the bottom ... unless of course there's some other way of getting around it that I'm unaware of? I would have also referred to the original thread, except that there was nothing to refter to, albeit "it" does explain why this is here (after I posted this).

__________________
So when the body dies, and consciousness departs, where do "we" go? ... Off to define another "reality" perhaps?