Consciousness, Explained in Scientific Terms by Francis Crick
Just as until a few years ago it was rare for scientists to write about consciousness, today the bibliographical references on the subject are overwhelming. However, and despite all the studies carried out on the brain, consciousness remains a subject on which there is no consensus, not even in the approach to the problem. However, today we are talking about a book that, discrepancies aside, is a reference for all those who study consciousness or who are interested in it as laymen.
The scientific search for the soul or consciousness?
The scientific search of the soul is the title in Spanish of the book The astonishing hypothesis (The amazing hypothesis), by Francis Crick; the scientist who discovered the molecular structure of DNA, along with James D. Watson, and who received the Nobel Prize for this contribution to science.
The translation of the title of this book into Spanish can be misleading, since the work is dedicated to disseminating his research in neurobiology, focusing on the exciting subject of consciousness from a scientific perspective, and on the explanation of how vision is produced in the brain; that is, what happens to our brain when we see something.In the first, Crick exposes the revolutionary hypothesis about his approach to the brain: to understand ourselves, we must understand how brain cells behave and interact. In this first part, in addition, the author reviews prescientific ideas about consciousness and the soul, contrasting them with contemporary scientific knowledge about the universe.
In the first, Crick exposes the revolutionary hypothesis about his approach to the brain: to understand ourselves, we must understand how brain cells behave and interact. In this first part, in addition, the author reviews prescientific ideas about consciousness and the soul, contrasting them with contemporary scientific knowledge about the universe.
In the second part, he explains what the brain is, establishes the general nature of consciousness and relates it to attention and short-term memory. Later, he goes on to establish his assumptions about consciousness and justifies the fact that he focuses on a specific type of consciousness, the visual.
The third part of the book is dedicated to clarifying the incorrect ideas that are usually had about vision and to expose their knowledge about how it is produced; that is, to detail what happens to our brain when we see something.
In its pages, we find information about the general organization and functioning of the nervous system, the anatomy of the brain, nerve cells, experimental methods for studying the brain, etc. The book closes with a short postscript on free will.
The Scientific Search of the Soul is a popular science work, designed for those who like science, but lack much of its knowledge. In it, Crick is forced to delve into some questions of other disciplines that, however, are closely related to consciousness; but it does it in the simplest way possible, which does not mean that, sometimes, the reading does not become a little more complex. However, as the author indicates in his foreword, these explanations, in case they hinder our reading, can be ignored without losing the thread of the argument.
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