Consciousness has remained an enigma even after close scientific scrutiny. Last two decades of the twentieth century, therefore, witnessed an explosion of interest in consciousness. Lack of consensus about the nature, definition and taxonomy of consciousness and lack of conviction about the adequacy of the reductive methodology have led scholars from different disciplines to study this multidimensional phenomenon from perspectives of their own. This volume is a collection of essays focusing on ontological, epistemological, semantic and methodological debates from philosophical and scientific perspectives. The issues dealt with here include the following: what is consciousness – a substance, a state or a process? Is consciousness subjective and private? Does ‘consciousness’ mean something unitary and indivisible or is it a cluster concept? What constitutes the core of consciousness – representation or experience? What is the hard problem of consciousness and how to solve it? Who will have the last word on consciousness – philosopher, physicist, psychologist or neurobiologist? Is it possible to have a unified theory of consciousness and how to go about it? The unique feature of this volume is the inclusion of articles on classical Indian theories of consciousness analysed from the contemporary point of view by very competent scholars. This collection is meant for both scholars and general readers. Rich information content of the volume will be particularly useful to students and researchers in philosophy of mind and consciousness studies.
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