(P/B) THE CONSCIOUS MIND

Παρουσίαση

What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? David J. Chalmers unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain. Writing in a thought-provoking style, Chalmers proposes that conscious experience must be understood as an irreducible entity similar to such physical properties as time, mass, and space that exists at a fundamental level and cannot be understood as the sum of its parts. Engaging and penetrating, this book adds a fresh new perspective to the subject that is sure to spark debate about our understanding of the mind for years to come. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

I. Preliminaries
1: Two Concepts of Mind
2: Supervenience and Explanation
II. The Irreducibility of Consciousness
3: Can Consciousness be Reductively Explained?
4: Naturalistic Dualism
5: The Paradox of Phenomenal Judgment
III. Toward a Theory of Consciousness
6: The Coherence between Consciousness and Cognition
7: Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia
8: Consciousness and Information: Some Speculation
IV. Applications
9: Strong Artificial Intelligence
10: The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics
Notes
Bibliography