The Astonishing Hypothesis : The Scientific Search for the Soul by Francis Crick. Crick, the co-discoverer of DNA (with James Watson) tries to establish a scientific basis for consciousness (not soul). But he was humble enough to accept that he has no answer but was just trying to kick start the scientific curiosity on this front.
Most of the book is based on neural representation of visual awareness, I was literally got drowned in the technical jargon. I have to admit that I had to generously skip through some of the jargon. This is one the most difficult neuroscience book I have ever read since he was trying to present the case at the neuron level (irony is that there is no mention of fMRI and even the word neuroscience/neuroscientist is only used couple of times since this book was written in 1994). In retrospect, it's amazing to see how far neuroscience has come since 1994. May be I have to re-read this book after 10 years or so.
It's premature to refute or contradict or take sides on this hypothesis. The fun and thrill I think is the gradual, cumulative and tiring journey to discover the answer. Getting polarized on established beliefs at this point is our loss and sheer waste of human intellect.
"Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency and lamentations." - Hippocrates (460-370 B.C)
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