The Emergence of Consciousness [Journal of Consciousness Studies Special Issue]. by Freeman, Anthony (editor) - 2001

Thorverton, UK: Imprint Academic, 2001. Paperback octavo, very good plus condition. 166 pp. How does the conscious mind relate to the physical body? Two common views from the past offered the stark choice between dualism in which mind and body were quite separate, and physicalism in which the mind was in fact nothing but the physical brain. Both these views are now widely rejected. Emergence theory offers a compromise: the mind emerges from the physical body but the whole person, mind and body, is more than the sum of the physical parts. Philosopher Robert Van Gulick gives a clear and masterly overview and comparison of the current emergent and reductive approaches. The editor's own chapter argues for the radical proposal that even God is an emergent property.