Explaining Consciousness

The Hard Problem

By: Jonathan Shear

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Paperback | 22 January 1999

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Paperback
432 Pages

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18+

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0.1 x 0.1 x 0.1

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Why doesn't all this cognitive processing go on "in the dark," without any consciousness at all? In this book philosophers, physicists, psychologists, neurophysiologists, computer scientists, and others address this central topic in the growing discipline of consciousness studies.

At the 1994 landmark conference "Toward a Scientific Basis for Consciousness", philosopher David Chalmers distinguished between the "easy" problems and the "hard" problem of consciousness research. According to Chalmers, the easy problems are to explain cognitive functions such as discrimination, integration, and the control of behavior; the hard problem is to explain why these functions should be associated with phenomenal experience. Why doesnt all this cognitive processing go on "in the dark", without any consciousness at all? In this book, philosophers, physicists, psychologists, neurophysiologists, computer scientists, and others address this central topic in the growing discipline of consciousness studies. Some take issue with Chalmers' distinction, arguing that the hard problem is a non-problem, or that the explanatory gap is too wide to be bridged. Others offer alternative suggestions as to how the problem might be solved, whether through cognitive science, fundamental physics, empirical phenomenology, or with theories that take consciousness as irreducible.

Contributors
Bernard J. Baars, Douglas J. Bilodeau, David Chalmers, Patricia S. Churchland, Thomas Clark, C. J. S. Clarke, Francis Crick, Daniel C. Dennett, Stuart Hameroff, Valerie Hardcastle, David Hodgson, Piet Hut, Christof Koch, Benjamin Libet, E. J. Lowe, Bruce MacLennan, Colin McGinn, Eugene Mills, Kieron OHara, Roger Penrose, Mark C. Price, William S. Robinson, Gregg Rosenberg, Tom Scott, William Seager, Jonathan Shear, Roger N. Shepard, Henry Stapp, Francisco J. Varela, Max Velmans, Richard Warner

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Psychology Cognition & Cognitive Psychology Science Biology, Life Sciences Human Biology Philosophy Philosophy of The Mind Popular Philosophy

Introduction	p. 1
Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness	p. 9
Facing Backwards on the Problem of Consciousness	p. 33
The Hornswoggle Problem	p. 37
Function and Phenomenology: Closing the Explanatory Gap	p. 45
The Why of Consciousness: A Non-Issue for Materialists	p. 61
There Is No Hard Problem of Consciousness	p. 69
Should We Expect to Feel as if We Understand Consciousness?	p. 83
Consciousness and Space	p. 97
Giving Up on the Hard Problem of Consciousness	p. 109
There Are No Easy Problems of Consciousness	p. 117
The Easy Problems Ain't So Easy	p. 125
Facing Ourselves: Incorrigibility and the Mind-Body Problem	p. 133
The Hardness of the Hard Problem	p. 149
The Nonlocality of Mind	p. 165
Conscious Events as Orchestrated Space-Time Selections	p. 177
The Hard Problem: A Quantum Approach	p. 197
Physics, Machines and the Hard Problem	p. 217
Why Neuroscience May Be Able to Explain Consciousness	p. 237
Understanding Subjectivity: Global Workspace Theory and the Resurrection of the Observing Self	p. 241
The Elements of Consciousness and Their Neurodynamical Correlates	p. 249
Consciousness, Information and Panpsychism	p. 269
Rethinking Nature: A Hard Problem within the Hard Problem	p. 287
Solutions to the Hard Problem of Consciousness	p. 301
Turning 'the Hard Problem' Upside Down and Sideways	p. 305
The Relation of Consciousness to the Material World	p. 325
Neurophenomenology: A Methodological Remedy for the Hard Problem	p. 337
The Hard Problem: Closing the Empirical Gap	p. 359
Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness	p. 379
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.

Explaining Consciousness

The Hard Problem

At a Glance

Paperback

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How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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