Freeman, W. J. (2000). How Brains Make Up Their Minds. New York: Columbia University Press.
史賓諾沙 (1632–1677) 是一系列挖苦的創始人（在歐洲文化裡）。
Spinoza claimed that the only difference between a man and a stone going downhill was that man had the illusion that he had chosen to do so. (p.5)這本書要用腦神經科學在 20 世紀的發現，解釋 consciousness 以及在兩個個體之間如何傳遞 meaning，作者主張人「的確」有選擇的能力，腦神經的驅動機制是「有目的性」的。如何能在西元 2000 年寫出這樣的論述？
In order to do this, I have to meet three conditions. One condition is that we comprehend the brain mechanisms through which neurons construct the options from which we choose. Another condition is that we must explain what is happening in the organization of neurons in our brains at moments of choice. And the third condition is that we must explain in neural terms the nature and role of awareness and how states of awareness are linked in the sequence that provides the contents of consciousness.換句話說，需要一套同時相容於 neuroscience facts 以及 the intuitions, thoughts, and qualia by which we live our daily lives and make choices 的大腦運作的解釋。
Qualia 是個有趣的字，搜尋才發現它已經進入流行文化了。
Philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett suggested that qualia was an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us.
看來，關於 consciousness，可以從 Vygotsky 一直讀到這裡，再接到《意識川流》。