Sense and sensibility
For centuries, science and philosophy have grappled with the mystery of our inner life. But, argues David Lodge, it is literature that has provided the most accurate record of human consciousness.
Until fairly recently, consciousness was not much studied by the natural sciences. It was considered the province of philosophy. Psychology, inasmuch as it aspired to be an empirical science, regarded consciousness as “a black box.”
All that could be observed and measured was input and output, not what went on inside. This placed severe limitations on the study of human experience. As recently as 1989 Stuart Sutherland wrote in the International…
