Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in the
scientific study of consciousness -- an area that has been largely
ignored since the time of William James. This renaissance has primarily
been stimulated by developments in PET, fMRI and other brain-scanning
technology that enable scientists to pinpoint the neural correlates of
conscious experience with ever-increasing accuracy. However, the study
of conscious experience itself has not kept pace with these advances in
third-person methodologies. If anything, the standard approaches to
examining the 'view from within' involve little more than cataloging its
readily accessible components. Thus the study of lived subjective
experience is still at the level of Aristotelian science. This has led
many to deny that there could possibly be such a thing as a truly
scientific study of conscious experience, or at least to ask: can one be
objective about the subjective? Drawing on a wide range of approaches --
from phenomenology to meditation -- THE VIEW FROM WITHIN examines the
possibility of a disciplined approach to the study of subjective states.
The focus is on the practical issues involved.