|
Showing 1 - 5 of
5 matches in All Departments
First published in 1985. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor &
Francis, an informa company.
A new edition of Wegner's classic and controversial work, arguing
that conscious will simply reminds of us the authorship of our
actions. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to
us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and
lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus
determinism. With the publication of The Illusion of Conscious Will
in 2002, Daniel Wegner proposed an innovative and provocative
answer: the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and
brain; it helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the
things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously
will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions
happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion ("the most
compelling illusion"), it serves as a guide to understanding
ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality.
Wegner was unable to undertake a second edition of the book before
his death in 2013; this new edition adds a foreword by Wegner's
friend, the prominent psychologist Daniel Gilbert, and an
introduction by Wegner's colleague Thalia Wheatley. Approaching
conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines
cases both when people feel that they are willing an act that they
are not doing and when they are not willing an act that they in
fact are doing in such phenomena as hypnosis, Ouija board spelling,
and dissociative identity disorder. Wegner's argument was
immediately controversial (called "unwarranted impertinence" by one
scholar) but also compelling. Engagingly written, with wit and
clarity, The Illusion of Conscious Will was, as Daniel Gilbert
writes in the foreword to this edition, Wegner's "magnum opus."
In a series of groundbreaking experiments, Daniel M. Wegner told
subjects not to think about white bears. Of course, they found it
impossible to avoid thinking of the bears--just as it often seems
impossible to stop thinking about forbidden foods, a painful
memory, or everyday fears and worries. Synthesizing a wealth of
scientific knowledge in an accessible, engaging style, this book
reveals that the more we attempt to push away or avoid unwanted
thoughts, the deeper they take hold. Wegner offers compelling
insights into how unpleasant or obsessive thoughts get out of
control--and what we can do to break free of them. Written for
general readers, the book has been widely used in undergraduate-
and graduate-level courses.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|