Some Reflections on Visual Awareness
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
We have recently published a paper entitled Towards a Neurobiological Theory of Consciousness (Crick and Koch 1990) that outlined a sketch of such a theory. Our aim was not to produce as complete a theory of consciousness as possible but to indicate promising lines of experimental work, mainly neurobiological, that might lead eventually toward a solution of the problem. We made the plausible assumption that all forms of consciousness (e.g., seeing, thinking, and pain) employ, at bottom, rather similar mechanisms and that if one form were understood, it would be much easier to tackle the others. We then made the personal choice of the mammalian visual system as the most promising one for an experimental attack.
This choice means that fascinating aspects of the subject, such as volition, intentionality, and self-consciousness, to say nothing of the problem of qualia, have had to be left on one side. We have also...
