View from Within: First-person Approaches to the Study of Consciousness (Consciousness Studies)
Since William James, there has been remarkably little attention in the sciences of the mind to the detailed investigation of conscious experience at the personal level. THE VIEW FROM WITHIN advances such investigation along several fronts, with articles on introspection, phenomenology, and meditative psychology. Especially valuable is the editors' introduction, which provides a useful guide to the methodology of first-person accounts, and the articles that build bridges to cognitive science, psychiatry, and the scientific study of meditation techniques. Invited commentaries by leading investigators of consciousness, together with authors' replies, make for a provocative presentation that will be discussed for some time to come. --Evan ThompsonThe View From Within is a brilliant presentation of the need to include first-person accounts in a science of consciousness. The editors sensibly maintain that a judicious balance of first-, second-, and third-person perspectives is not only desirable but unavoidable in any satisfactory study of consciousness. But their integrative approach is not merely a theoretical call for such; they provide instances of precisely how such a comprehensive approach can be pragmatically executed. As such, this book marks a major milestone in the science of consciousness, and it will surely become one of the standard references in the field.   --Ken WilberThe View from Within, sets out to argue that it would be  counterproductive for current consciousness research to continue  to disregard the resources contained within exactly these three  traditions. In their useful introduction, Varela and Shear, the  two editors, spell out why we have to take first-person data into  account, and why it is so necessary to develop an appropriate  methodology. The publication is very timely indeed. It is a splendid  initiative.   --Dan Zahavi, Times Literary Supplement, December 31, 1999This is an important collection addressing what is arguably the greatest challenge now facing a science of consciousness. Such a science must connect third-person data about brain and behavior with first-person data about conscious experience. But how do we gather the first-person data, and how can we represent it? This book explores sophisticated ideas from a variety of traditions. I hope it sets the agenda for a renewed investigation of first-person methodologies and formalisms in the next few years.   --David ChalmersThis looks like a great book series  a valuable extension of JCS.   --John Searle