The Bodily Nature of Consciousness: Sartre and Contemporary Philosophy of Mind

A coherent and convincing theory of consciousness.

This book is a complex and intriguing work. Wider has woven a sustained argument from a wealth of scholarly material drawn from distinct traditions in support of her two interrelated theses: that consciousness is invariably self-consciousness and that the body is the subject of self-consciousness... It certainly challenges students of Sartre to reconsider his notion of human freedom in light of our incarnate nature.

This book is a product of that all too rare blindness to the boundary separating philosophy into analytic and continental; if not a blindness, then a healthy disregard... Wider's open-mindedness and expansive erudition find their rewards in a treatment of the issues raised that is likely to appeal to any philosophy convinced that an acknowledgement of both first-person and third-person perspectives is necessary for an understanding of mind.

A thoughtful book.... Wider does a great job of guiding the reader through her theses and presenting clearly written arguments.

Kathleen Wider has few if any peers in her ability to bring strands from analytic philosophy together with an extremely in-depth understanding of the philosophy of Being and Nothingness in order better to understand both the latter's strengths and weaknesses and just what consciousness itself, at least for all of us post-Cartesians, must be.

The Bodily Nature of Consciousness is a stunning achievement. Combining an existential-phenomenological approach with her knowledge of recent biological research, Wider argues that self-consciousness is rooted in body-awareness. She has taken a great step in advancing our understanding of the nature of consciousness.

Wider's discussion is coherent, detailed, and fascinating, and her account of recent work on consciousness and embodiment is well informed. A major strength of her book is its clarity, both organizational and conceptual. She writes in a direct and unpretentious style, and presents frequent summaries and reminders of earlier points, so the intricacies of the argument are easy to follow.