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Our subjective inner life is what really
matters to us as human beings -- and yet we know relatively
little about how it arises. Over a long and distinguished
career, Benjamin Libet has conducted experiments that have
helped us see, in clear and concrete ways, how the brain
produces conscious awareness. For the first time, Libet
gives his own account of these experiments and their importance
for our understanding of consciousness.
Most notably, Libet's experiments reveal
a substantial delay -- the "mind time" of the
title -- before any awareness affects how we view our mental
activities. If all conscious awarenesses are preceded by
unconscious processes, as Libet observes, we are forced
to conclude that unconscious processes initiate our conscious
experiences. Freely voluntary acts are found to be initiated
unconsciously before an awareness of wanting to act -- a
discovery with profound ramifications for our understanding
of free will.
How do the physical activities of billions
of cerebral nerve cells give rise to an integrated conscious
subjective awareness? How can the subjective mind affect
or control voluntary actions? Libet considers these questions,
as well as the implications of his discoveries for the nature
of the soul, the identity of the person, and the relation
of the non-physical subjective mind to the physical brain
that produces it. Rendered in clear, accessible language,
Libet's experiments and theories will allow interested amateurs
and experts alike to share the experience of the extraordinary
discoveries made in the practical study of consciousness.
Benjamin Libet is Professor Emeritus
of Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco,
and a member of the Center for Neuroscience at the University
of California, Davis.
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