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What is the nature of consciousness? How is consciousness related
to brain processes? This volume collects thirteen new papers on
these topics: twelve by leading and respected philosophers and one
by a leading color-vision scientist. All focus on consciousness in
the "phenomenal" sense: on what it's like to have an experience.
Consciousness has long been regarded as the biggest stumbling
block for physicalism, the view that the mind is physical. The
controversy has gained focus over the last few decades, and
phenomenal knowledge and phenomenal concepts-knowledge of
consciousness and the associated concepts-have come to play
increasingly prominent roles in this debate. Consider Frank
Jackson's famous case of Mary, the super-scientist who learns all
the physical information while confined in a black-and-white room.
According to Jackson, if physicalism is true, then Mary's physical
knowledge should allow her to deduce what it's like to see in
color. Yet it seems intuitively clear that she learns something
when she leaves the room. But then how can consciousness be
physical? Arguably, whether this sort of reasoning is sound depends
on how phenomenal concepts and phenomenal knowledge are construed.
For example, some argue that the Mary case reveals something about
phenomenal concepts but has no implications for the nature of
consciousness itself. Are responses along these lines adequate? Or
does the problem arise again at the level of phenomenal concepts?
The papers in this volume engage with the latest developments in
this debate. The authors' perspectives range widely. For example,
Daniel Dennett argues that anti-physicalist arguments such as the
knowledge argument are simplyconfused; David Papineau grants that
such arguments at least reveal important features of phenomenal
concepts; and David Chalmers defends the anti-physicalist
arguments, arguing that the "phenomenal concept strategy" cannot
succeed.
Consciousness has long been regarded as the biggest stumbling block
for the view that the mind is physical. This volume collects
thirteen new papers on this problem by leading philosophers
including Torin Alter, Ned Block, David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett,
John Hawthorne, Frank Jackson, Janet Levin, Joseph Levine, Martine
Nida-R melin, Laurence Nemirow, Knut Nordby, David Papineau, and
Stephen White.
The study of the mind has always been one of the main
preoccupations of philosophers, and has been a booming area of
research in recent decades, with remarkable advances in psychology
and neuroscience. Oxford University Press now presents the most
authoritative and comprehensive guide ever published to the
philosophy of mind.
An outstanding international team of contributors offer 45
specially written critical surveys of a wide range of topics
relating to the mind. The first two sections cover the place of the
mind in the natural world: its ontological status, how it fits into
the causal fabric of the universe, and the nature of consciousness.
The third section focuses on the much-debated subjects of content
and intentionality. The fourth section examines a variety of mental
capacities, including memory, imagination, and emotion. The fifth
section looks at epistemic issues, in particular regarding
knowledge of one's own and other minds. The volume concludes with a
section on self, personhood, and agency.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind will be an invaluable
resource for advanced students and scholars of philosophy, and also
for researchers in neighbouring disciplines seeking a high-level
survey of the state of the art in this flourishing field.
The study of the mind has always been one of the main
preoccupations of philosophers, and has been a booming area of
research in recent decades, with remarkable advances in psychology
and neuroscience. Oxford University Press now presents the most
authoritative and comprehensive guide ever published to the
philosophy of mind.
An outstanding international team of contributors offer 45
specially written critical surveys of a wide range of topics
relating to the mind. The first two sections cover the place of the
mind in the natural world: its ontological status, how it fits into
the causal fabric of the universe, and the nature of consciousness.
The third section focuses on the much-debated subjects of content
and intentionality. The fourth section examines a variety of mental
capacities, including memory, imagination, and emotion. The fifth
section looks at epistemic issues, in particular regarding
knowledge of one's own and other minds. The volume concludes with a
section on self, personhood, and agency.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mind will be an invaluable
resource for advanced students and scholars of philosophy, and also
for researchers in neighboring disciplines seeking a high-level
survey of the state of the art in this flourishing field.
Physicalism - the thesis that everything there is in the world,
including our minds is constituted by basic physical entities - has
dominated the philosophy of mind during the last few decades. But,
although the conceptual foundations of the physicalist agenda -
including a proper explication of notions, such as 'causation',
'determination', 'realization' or even 'physicalism' itself - must
be settled before more specific problems (e.g. the problems of
mental causation and human agency) can be satisfactorily addressed,
a comprehensive philosophical reflection on the relationships
between the various key concepts of the debate on physicalism is
yet missing. This book presents a range of essays on the conceptual
foundations of physicalism, mental causation and human agency.
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