Close Reading

 "There are many issues in philosophy which to this day have by no means been adequately resolved." Thus begins Cicero's De Natura Deorum , written as late in the human day as 45 BC. 

I am having to make entries to this blog when I can snatch moments and as the thoughts occur to me. The following is a brief addition to my 'Science Says' posts, the second of which is here . I am criticising this article by Peter Halligan and David A Oakley. I want to return to some lines already quoted: "There are those who believe consciousness is like a ghost in the machinery of our brains , meriting special attention and study in its own right. And there are those, like us, who challenge this, pointing out that what we call consciousness is just another output generated backstage by our efficient neural machinery." In particular, I want to focus on the assertion that "what we call consciousness is just another output generated backstage by our efficient neural machinery".  What does 'backstage' mean here? Does it mean in the unconscious, or in the body, or both? Let's suppose that it means the unconscious. The authors would then be sa...