Journal of Consciousness Studies

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Journal of Consciousness Studies

  • How does the mind relate to the brain?
  • Can computers ever be conscious?
  • What do we mean by subjectivity and the self?
    • These questions are being keenly debated in fields as diverse as cognitive science, neurophysiology and philosophy. JCS is a peer-reviewed journal which examines these issues in plain English

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    Current Issue

    The Singularity, by David Chalmers

    additional commentary in Vol.19 No.1-2 (2012)
    Full text also available from:
    Contents Editors Full Text Subscriptions Authors Reviews Online Books

    Critical Reviews

    The complete text from which these are extracted is available.
  • "Do we need this journal? . . . Yes, we do: there is no other journal quite like it, and one day we shall, I think, look back to its appearance as a defining moment . . . and at the price, it's a snip!" Jeffrey Gray, Nature
  • "With JCS, consciousness studies has arrived."

    • Susan Greefield, Times Higher Education Supplement
  • "There is a need for a journal that will publish high-quality work on consciousness while being at the same time less tied down by rigid views as to the suitability of material than most journals. One hopes that the promise of this first issue will be fulfilled."

    • Brian Josephson, Times Higher Education Supplement.
  • "It is pleasant that we are promised discussions in the humanities as well as in science, with papers on culture and on the philosophy of mind slated for future issues. It will continue to have something for everybody."

    • David Chalmers, Times Literary Supplement.
  • "A volatile mixture of refereed articles, interviews and conference reports from all camps (reductionist to mystical) in one of the most exciting areas of research and theory-making."

    • Gene Feder, The Lancet.
  • "Its advisory board is a roll-call of the biggest names in consciousness publishing."

    • John Cornwell, The Tablet.
  • "You guys have a marvelous magazine. You publish a lot of things that would not be published in routine philosophical and scientific journals, and that seems to me exactly right at our present state of the investigation of consciousness. We don't know how it works and we need to try all kinds of different ideas."

    • John Searle (Interview with Anthony Freeman).
  • "In my forty years of experimental research and commentary in the area of conscious experience, I have not encountered a journal as uniquely helpful and stimulating as the JCS. If I had to choose only one journal to read on the topic of consciousness, the JCS would be it."

    • Benjamin Libet
    "There is clearly a need -- or a demand -- for an interdisciplinary journal devoted to the subject, and in its first five years the Journal of Consciousness Studies has done an admirable job of meeting the need. Though focused on just one topic, it has the widest range of contributors of any academic journal I have read"
    Ray Monk,  Times Higher Education Supplement (February 12, 1999)

    A New Multi-Disciplinary Subject?

    See also Editorial: The Future of Consciousness Studies

    Over the last few years, research into consciousness has at last become accepted within the academic community. As John Searle puts it, raising the subject of consciousness in cognitive science discussions is no longer considered to be ``bad taste'', causing graduate students to ``roll their eyes at the ceiling and assume expressions of mild disgust.''

    But why are we interested in consciousness? Most people are interested not just because of the academic and interdisciplinary challenges, but because of their personal experience - we have consciousness, we experience it; perhaps we even think that we ``are'' it. But, if we are to make progress in studying consciousness, we will have to think about it very clearly, and engage in serious constructive dialogues between a variety of viewpoints. And that is the purpose of this journal.

    The field of consciousness studies is at a very early stage, characterized by crude theories, most of which are unlikely to stand the test of time. We prefer a broad, diverse and open conceptualization - including political consciousness, and ecological consciousness (for example in the sense of Bateson's ``ecology of mind''), but we do not wish to define for our authors exactly what any of these terms mean. We seek to provoke a spirited debate by actively seeking serious opposing views, for example from cognitive science, biology and philosophy.

    The Journal of Consciousness Studies covers this broad field by:

    Full Text of Selected Articles

    JCS is a traditional printed publication -- most of our subscribers like to read every article and we pride ourselves in the quality of our editing, printing and binding. However we have a thriving email discussion group, jcs-online which is sampled here and have included links to the full text of a representative sample of refereed articles, editorials and reviews from JCS itself:

    Some full text is stored in pdf format, for which you may need to download the free Acrobat reader from Adobe Systems.

    For colour brochure and cumulative contents email sandra@imprint.co.uk
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