Origins

Subtitled 'the scientific story of creation', this book is a real tour de force covering origins since the beginning of the universe, namely of space, time and energy, mass, light, stars and galaxies, chemical complexity, the sun and the planets, a habitable earth, life, complex cells and multicellular organisms, species, and, finally, in chapters 11 and 12, the origin of humanity and human consciousness. It is exceptionally well informed and well written with quite a number of illustrations. Many readers will be most interested in this final chapter on consciousness as the hard problem where he refers to Descartes, Gilbert Ryle and David Chalmers. As might be expected, his reasoned assumption is that consciousness arises as a direct result of the neural, chemical and physical processes that take place in the brain. He then proceeds to justify this assumption in terms of current research and draws selectively on Wilder Penfield, whose last book explicitly repudiates scientific materialism. He finds purpose and meaning within our social brains, which arguably leaves the mystery of consciousness still open even though there is tremendous philosophical pressure to remain within a materialistic framework.