The Astonishing Hypothesis Quotes

“What is the "neural correlate" of consciousness?”

“The study of consciousness is a scientific problem.”

“Recall the old line: How do I know what I think till I hear what I say.”

“If revealed religions have revealed anything it is that they are usually wrong.”

“New knowledge has not diminished our sense of awe but increased it immeasurably.”

“Attention... is not just a psychological concept. Its effects can be seen at the neuronal level.”

“Wikipedia: The Astonishing Hypothesis”

“What is the "neural correlate" of visual awareness?”

“There may be several forms of visual awareness and, by extension, even more forms of consciousness in general.”

“We may be using the terms conscious and unconscious for too many somewhat distinct activities.”

“The real world is constantly there, so the brain can refer to it to check any provisional judgements it may have made...”

“The correct way to conceptualize consciousness has not yet been discovered and... we are merely groping our way toward it.”

“Any experimental work on consciousness has, in the past, been looked on with grave suspicion, not only by psychologists and neuroscientists but by the medical profession.”

“Crick manages to bring together a great deal of material, and to present it entertainingly, concisely, and yet in a fashion that is easily intelligible to the nonspecialist.”

“Not only do the beliefs of most popular religions contradict each other but... they are based on evidence so flimsy that only an act of blind faith can make them acceptable.”

“Consciousness can undoubtedly take many forms, depending on which parts of the cortex are involved.”

“What is especially unclear is whether, in focused awareness, we are conscious of only one object at a time, or whether our brains can deal with several objects simultaneously.”

“Philosophers have had such a poor record over the last two thousand years that they would do better to show a certain modesty rather than the lofty superiority that they usually display.”

“Our highly developed brains... were not evolved under the pressure of discovering scientific truths but only to enable us to be clever enough to survive and leave descendants.”

“Each set of... cortical areas is strongly connected to just one small region of the thalamus. Such a region coordinates the activities of its associated cortical areas by synchronizing their firing.”