ABSTRACT
How do we understand the ‘self’ that this book is searching for? By ‘self’ I mean my body and my conscious mind, together. The body is easily open to scientific analysis – it is made of the same stuff as the rest of the universe. But what is consciousness made of – if it is ‘made of’ anything? There are two main contemporary theories of consciousness. One is that consciousness is a sort of byproduct of the brain, which does not have any effect on the brain itself. If so, we do not have free will and cannot really be responsible for our actions – we are passengers not drivers. The other view is that, although we cannot say what consciousness is, it affects actions in our brain, giving us some degree of free will, making us moral agents with human dignity. This issue is important if we see ourselves and our patients as responsible moral agents who possess human dignity. This chapter examines these two theories and defends the argument for autonomous personhood and moral responsibility. The alternative is an impoverished view of the human condition and an impoverished evidence base, leading to an impoverished and impersonal medical practice.
