The Mind Matters

In this book the author presents a case against orthodox mechanistic views of the brain-mind, and in favour of the view that "mind matters". In the course of the argument he ranges over such topics as consciousness, informal reasoning, computers, evolution, and quantum indeterminacy and non-locality. The relevance of quantum mechanics to mind is supported by an approachable account of its basic mathematics and its interpretation, which will also be of value to those interested in the general philosophy of matter. Without suggesting the existence of a "ghost in the machine", the author offers plausible conjectures as to how there can be a free-willing conscious mind operating in association with the physical brain. He concludes with more general sketches for a world-view. Although written from a philosophical viewpoint, the book has implications for the sciences concerned with the brain-mind problem. At the same time, it is largely non-technical, and thus accessible to the non-specialist reader.