The Metaphysics of Consciousness: 67 (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, Series Number 67)

Cambridge University Press, 8/5/2010
EAN 9780521173919, ISBN10: 0521173914

Paperback, 296 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

What is consciousness? What is the place of consciousness in nature? These and related questions occupy a prominent place in contemporary studies in metaphysics and philosophy of mind, often involving complex interdisciplinary connections between philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence, biology and cognitive neuroscience. At the same time, these questions play a fundamental role in the philosophies of great thinkers of the past such as, among others, Plotinus, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, William James and Edmund Husserl. This new collection of essays by leading contemporary philosophers of mind and historians of philosophy seeks to address these questions from both a systematic and a theoretical perspective and to create a new and fruitful forum for future discussion. In the attempt to do justice to the richness of our mental life, the volume features in-depth examinations not solely of mainstream physicalist doctrines, but also of largely neglected positions such as Cartesian dualism, idealism and panpsychism.

1. Consciousness
don't give up on the brain Kenneth Aizawa
2. It must be true - but how can it be? Some remarks on panpsychism and mental composition Pierfrancesco Basile
3. How to become unconscious Stephen Clark
4. Time in consciousness, consciousness in time David Cockburn
5. Phenomenal holism Barry Dainton
6. Making sense of phenomenal unity
an intentionalist account of temporal experience Julian Kiverstein
7. Sprigge's ontology of consciousness Leemon McHenry
8. The representational vs. the relational view of visual experience Brian P. McLaughlin
9. The road to substance dualism Geoffrey Madell
10. Is there a metaphysics of consciousness without a phenomenology of consciousness? Some thoughts derived from Husserl's philosophical phenomenology Eduard Marbach
11. Quality, thought and consciousness Howard Robinson
12. Concessionary dualism and physicalism William Seager
13. Fundamental singleness
how to turn the 2nd paralogism into a valid argument Galen Strawson.