Consciousness science: real progress and lingering misconceptions.

Abstract

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman once remarked that engaging the public about economic theories is hard, partly because everybody feels they are entitled to opine about the economy even if they have no formal training in economics (see: http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/virus.html). Perhaps because we are all conscious, the same sometimes happens in the field of consciousness research. Like Krugman, we think this is a troubling state of affairs that needs to be rectified.