Roger Horrocks is a New Zealand writer, educator and cultural activist. He is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Auckland. His awards include the Pou Aronui Prize from the Royal Society of New Zealand, and an MNZM in the New Years Honours. His philosophical poetry book Song of the Ghost in the Machine was a finalist in the 2016 New Zealand Book Awards. A Book of Thinking completes the trilogy which he began with his Book of Seeing and Book of Listening.
Consciousness: A Book of Thinking by Roger Horrocks
$38.00
What is consciousness, and why has it become such a controversial subject?
Consciousness has been described as “simultaneously the most familiar and the most mysterious thing in the universe.” It is something we experience in all our waking moments, yet science still struggles to agree about what it is or how it has arisen.
Among the many controversies covered by the book is the current debate over artificial intelligence. Can non-biological creatures such as robots share the power that we call consciousness?
This “Book of Thinking” takes an exceptionally broad approach by exploring what science, philosophy, and the arts have to say about consciousness. Sometimes these traditions clash and collide in their views, but each yields rich insights. The book presents a range of innovative ways to understand the nature of subjective experience.
“Roger Horrocks has always looked, listened, thought, and read widely and generously. Consciousness, written with his hallmark lucidity, is astonishingly up to date, patient, penetrating, polyphonic (science, philosophy, art, experience), and pleasurable.” — Emeritus Professor Brian Boyd
“He wears his knowledge lightly with a great ability to make complex issues clear.” — Emeritus Professor Wystan Curnow
