Understanding Consciousness
- Understanding Consciousness
"Understanding Consciousness" is a scientific-philosophical text written by psychologist Max Velmans. The book combines scientific studies of consciousness with philosophy of mind. Part 1 reviews the strengths and weaknesses of all currently dominant theories of consciousness in a form suitable for undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers focusing mainly on dualism, physicalism, functionalism and consciousness in machines. Part 2 gives a new analysis of consciousness, grounded in its everyday phenomenology, which challenges presuppositions that form the basis of the dualism versus reductionist debate. It also examines the consequences for realism versus idealism, subjectivity, intersubjectivity and objectivity, and the relation of consciousness to brain processing. Part 3 gives a new synthesis, with a novel approach to understanding what consciousness is, and a novel approach to what consciousness does that pays particular attention to the paradoxes surrounding the causal interactions of consciousness with the brain. It also introduces Reflexive Monism, an alternative to dualism and reductionism that aims to be consistent with the findings of science and with common sense.
Both reductionism and dualism are guilty, Velmans asserts, of not paying enough attention to the "phenomenology" of consciousness, the condition of "being aware of something". Reductionism, for example, attempts to reduce consciousness to being a state of the brain; thus consciousness is nothing more than its neural causes and correlates. This, Velmans says, is guilty of breaking Leibniz's assertion that, in order for A to be identical to B (that is, for consciousness to be a state of the brain), the properties of A must also be the properties of B. Velmans here argues that the subjective, phenomenal experience of consciousness is entirely unlike the neural states of the brain, and thus may not be reduced to them; that is, the phenomenal properties of consciousness are not identifiable with the physical brain states that arguably cause them.
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
Consciousness-based healthcare — (CBH), an emerging field of complementary and alternative medicine, is the application of consciousness based interventions to achieve tangible, beneficial outcomes across a wide range of health concerns including physical and emotional issues.… … Wikipedia
Consciousness raising — (often abbreviated c.r. or CR) is a form of political activism, pioneered by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group of people on some cause or… … Wikipedia
Consciousness — • In its widest sense it includes all sensations, thoughts, feelings, and volitions, in fact the sum total of mental life Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Consciousness Consciousness … Catholic encyclopedia
Consciousness — Representation of consciousness from the seventeenth century. Consciousness is a term that refers to the relati … Wikipedia
consciousness — /kon sheuhs nis/, n. 1. the state of being conscious; awareness of one s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc. 2. the thoughts and feelings, collectively, of an individual or of an aggregate of people: the moral consciousness of … Universalium
consciousness — con|scious|ness [ kanʃəsnəs ] noun ** 1. ) uncount the state of being awake and able to hear, see, and think: He lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness. lose consciousness: The pain was so bad that I lost consciousness. regain/recover… … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
consciousness */*/ — UK [ˈkɒnʃəsnəs] / US [ˈkɑnʃəsnəs] noun 1) [uncountable] the state of being awake and able to hear, see, and think He lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness. lose consciousness: The pain was so bad that I lost consciousness.… … English dictionary
consciousness — /ˈkɒnʃəsnəs / (say konshuhsnuhs) noun 1. the state of being conscious. 2. inward sensibility of something; knowledge of one s own existence, sensations, cognitions, etc. 3. the thoughts and feelings, collectively, of an individual, or of an… …
consciousness — [ˈkɒnʃəsnəs] noun 1) [U] the state of being awake and able to see, hear, and think The pain was so bad that I lost consciousness.[/ex] 2) [singular/U] the knowledge or understanding that something exists or is important We want to increase… … Dictionary for writing and speaking English
consciousness-raising — con|scious|ness rais|ing [ kanʃəsnəs ,reızıŋ ] noun singular or uncount the process of gaining more knowledge and understanding of moral, political, or social issues … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
