The Mysterious Flame
by Colin McGinn · first published 1999
67% recommend33% neutral
"Is consciousness nothing more than the result of neurons firing through brain tissue? Or is it, as some claim, a fundamental reality like space, time and matter? In recent years the nature of consciousness - our immediately known experiences - has taken its place as the most profound problem in the scientific discourse. Now in this new book, Colin McGinn takes a provocative position on this perplexing problem."--BOOK JACKET. "Arguing that we can never truly "know" consciousness - that the human intellect is simply not equipped to unravel this mystery - he demonstrates that accepting this lim
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One excellent book on consciousness is Mcginn's The Mysterious Flame [1]. I knew consciousness is a hard problem, but the book made it clear how baffling and utterly mysterious it is. I am still absolutely flabbergasted when I think about it (how on earth does consciousness…
on “What Is It Like to Be a Bat? (1974) [pdf]” ↗An excellent book that greatly expands on this "mystery" is The Mysterious Flame, Conscious Minds in a Material World, Colin McGinn.
on “They're made out of meat (1991)” ↗Normally I tell everyone to read The Name of the Rose first and be happy, but for you I think you should start with The Mysterious Flame of queen Loana, even though it's one of his less accessible works. Much of it is a fictionalized memoir on how fascism became embedded in the fabric of daily life during Mussolini's reign, although this…
on “Umberto Eco has died” ↗Foucault's Pendulum gets my vote too if you want to read something that is as straight forward as Eco can get. The Island of the Day Before, Baudolino and The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana felt more like he was trying to test you, in each of those books, to see if you are worthy of consuming the entire book. Every time you feel you have a reasonable grasp of what is going…
on “Umberto Eco: Exploring Imaginary Lands With One of Italy’s Masters of Fiction” ↗