DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz

Vicissitudes of Consciousness, Varieties of Correlates

The Neural Correlates of Consciousness: Empirical and Conceptual Questions
Edited by Thomas Metzinger. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. 350 pp. Cloth, $50.00.

If, as Ned Block has argued, consciousness is a mongrel concept, then this collection resembles nothing so much as a visit to a dog pound, where one can hear all the varieties baying at full volume. The experience is one of immersion in a voluminous excited cacophony, with much yipping and barking, some deep-throated growling, and other voices that can only be characterized as howling at the moon. What a time to be conscious! What a time to be conscious of being conscious!