Cognitive Models Go Paddling in the Waters of Consciousness: Review of "Scientific Approaches To Consciousness", Jonathan Cohen & Jonathan Schooler (Eds.)

Scientific Approaches to Consciousness is a collection of 28 chapters based on the 25th Carnegie Mellon Symposium on Cognition. The chapters, which vary considerably in quality and depth, provide a cross section of empirical work and theoretical positions from many well known researchers within the cognitivist/functionalist tradition. Readers will be disappointed if they expect a broad interdisciplinary approach to consciousness, or a blinding insight into the "Hard Problem" of wet consciousness. And many chapters will prove hard going for the non-specialist in the cognitive brain sciences. Little of the content covers new work, but for advanced students, researchers or teachers, the book can provide a useful overview of selected research areas outside their immediate area of specialisation. It also provides a sample of what some of the big names in the cognitive brain sciences have to say about consciousness.