ABSTRACT
Among the deep mysteries is consciousness. Why are we conscious? How is consciousness – sensations such as pleasures and pains and colours, and awareness of objects and ourselves – related to, or somehow given by, the physical processes of the brain? Why does the brain’s electrical activity, or whatever, give brain-owners, and especially ourselves, consciousness although no other objects or activities in nature are conscious? At least we suppose that it does, though since consciousness is essentially private we cannot be quite sure that our friends are conscious, or quite sure that a stone does not feel a kick.
