Author draws unexpected conclusions

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

Geoff Adams reviews The Rise of Consciousness by Oliver Sacks. Publisher: Macmillian.

Oliver Sacks died in 2015 after spending almost 50 years working as a neurologist.

He wrote 15 books and was dubbed "the poet laureate of medicine'' by the New York Times.

His previous titles include The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, Hallucinations and the memoir On the Move.

Two weeks before his death, Sacks outlined this very readable book, which discusses and connects evolution, chemistry, medicine, botany, neuroscience and the arts.

In The River of Consciousness he often quotes Darwin and Freud, and some of their lesser known thoughts and theories.

The author with his wide knowledge is able to make unexpected and interesting connections.

The basic topics are questions of memory, time and consciousness.

Sacks tosses around many ideas and questions about the latter.

From Sigmund Freud's strong interests in memory, he delves into the fallibility of the mind in action then leaps into discussion of human creativity, our sense of time, and other topics, ending the book with a chapter on "forgetting and neglect in science''.

A strong impression is gained from this that the "river'' of consciousness flows strongly but still needs much survey and investigation.

Sacks himself provides few definitive explanations, but he writes that great scientific advances often need "fortuity and inevitability''.

The laws of the physical world were "more or less petrified'' from the time of Aristotle until the 16th century, when Galileo and others believed the language of nature was mathematics.

In the 17th century the time was ripe for calculus ("devised by both Newton and Leibniz almost simultaneously although in different ways''). Einstein's time came when it was becoming clear that the old mechanical, mathematical view was insufficient to explain the photoelectric effect, a change of mechanics near the speed of light, etc. But Einstein took pains to say that a new theory does not invalidate or supersede the old but rather is like climbing a mountain that "allows us to regain our old concepts from a higher level''.

Sacks explores various theories of his heroes in many sciences, jumping from one topic to another (did you know that plants and worms have mental lives?).

He does not appear to endorse any particular view, preferring, like Einstein, to view a new theory as a climb to gain new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between the starting point and its rich environment beyond.

There is much for readers to ponder in this book, and enjoy the diverse knowledge of the writer who searched brilliantly for knowledge about everything that makes us human.

Geoff Adams is a former ODT editor.

 

Win a copy

The Weekend Mix has three copies of The River of Consciousness, by Oliver Sacks, to give away courtesy of Macmillan publishing. For your chance to win a copy, email playtime@odt.co.nz with your name and postal address in the body of the email and ‘‘Oliver Sacks’’ in the subject line, by 5pm on Tuesday, January 23. 

 

 

 

 

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