ABSTRACT
Chapters 1 to 11 suggested a way to make sense of what consciousness is and what consciousness does that is consistent with common sense and with the findings of science. Needless to say, this theory is only a partial one. A more detailed account of how consciousness relates to the workings of the brain requires further empirical advance. There is also a great deal that I have not discussed. To retain a manageable length I have said little, for example, about the way social and cultural contexts can influence the many forms that consciousness can take, although the influence of embedding context can be a powerful one. Nor have I dealt with how to make sense of extraordinary experiences, altered states of consciousness, and the investigations of consciousness that have been pursued in Eastern traditions over millennia. This is deliberate. My intention is to engage the ‘consciousness debate’ in the form that it currently presents in Western philosophy and science. Consequently, the only evidence on which I have drawn derives either from ordinary experience or from the findings of science.
