Weisberg Consciousness

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7456-8661-5
Verlag: John Wiley & Sons
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 200 Seiten, E-Book

Reihe: Key Concepts in Philosophy

Each of us, right now, is having a unique conscious experience.Nothing is more basic to our lives as thinking beings and nothing,it seems, is better known to us. But the ever-expanding reach ofnatural science suggests that everything in our world is ultimatelyphysical. The challenge of fitting consciousness into our modernscientific worldview, of taking the subjective "feel"of conscious experience and showing that it is just neural activityin the brain, is among the most intriguing explanatory problems ofour times.
In this book, Josh Weisberg presents the range of contemporaryresponses to the philosophical problem of consciousness. The basicphilosophical tools of the trade are introduced, including thoughtexperiments featuring Mary the color-deprived super scientist andfearsome philosophical "zombies". The book thensystematically considers the space of philosophical theories ofconsciousness. Dualist and other "non-reductive"accounts of consciousness hold that we must expand our basicphysical ontology to include the intrinsic features ofconsciousness. Functionalist and identity theories, by contrast,hold that with the right philosophical stage-setting, we can fitconsciousness into the standard scientific picture. And"mysterians" hold that any solution to the problem isbeyond such small-minded creatures as us.
Throughout the book, the complexity of current debates onconsciousness is handled in a clear and concise way, providing thereader with a fine introductory guide to the rich philosophicalterrain. The work makes an excellent entry point to one of the mostexciting areas of study in philosophy and science today.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Weisberg, Josh

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments ix
1 The Problem 1
2 Mysterianism 19
3 Dualism 35
4 Nonreductive Views 53
5 The Identity Theory 71
6 Functionalism 90
7 First-Order Representationalism 108
8 Higher-Order Representationalism 127
Notes 147
References 154
Index 163

Über Autor(innen)

Josh Weisberg is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Houston.