The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Consciousness

by Katherine J. Morris (Contribution by), Daniel Stoljar (Contribution by), Ted Honderich (Contribution by), Paul Bello (Contribution by), Scott Soames (Contribution by)

Overview

From Descartes and Cartesian mind-body dualism in the 17th century though to 21st-century concerns about artificial intelligence programming, The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Consciousness presents a compelling history and up-to-date overview of this burgeoning subject area.

Acknowledging that many of the original concepts of consciousness studies are found in writings of past thinkers, it begins with introductory overviews to the thought of Descartes through to Kant, covering Brentano's restoration of empiricism to philosophical psychology and the major figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Russell, Wittgenstein, Ryle and James. These opening chapters on the forces in the history of consciousness lay the groundwork needed to understand how influential contemporary thinkers in the philosophy of mind interpret the concept of consciousness.

Featuring leading figures in the field, Part II discusses current issues in a range of topics progressing from the so-called hard problem of understanding the nature of consciousness, to the methodology of invoking the possibility of philosophical zombies and the prospects of reductivism in philosophy of mind. Part III is dedicated to new research directions in the philosophy of consciousness, including chapters on experiment objections to functionalism and the scope and limits of artificial intelligence.

Equipped with practical research resources including an annotated bibliography, a research guide and a glossary, The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Consciousness is an authoritative guide for studying the past, present and future of consciousness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474229029
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	01/25/2018
Series:	Bloomsbury Companions
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	504
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Dale Jacquette is Senior Professorial Chair in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Katherine J. Morris is Fellow in Philosophy at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, UK. Her previous publications include Sartre (Blackwell, 2007) and, with Gordon Baker, Descartes' Dualism (Routledge, 1996).

Ted Honderich is Grote Professor Emeritus of Mind and Logic at University College London. His many publications include How Free are You? Philosopher: A Kind of Life, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, Conservatism: Burke, Nozick, Bush, Blair, Terrorism for Humanity and After the Terror.

Dale Jacquette is Senior Professorial Chair in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland. He is the author of The Philosophy of Schopenhauer (Acumen, 2005), Pathways in Philosophy (OUP, 2004), Ontology (Acumen, 2002) and Six Philosophical Appetizers (McGraw-Hill, 2001), and editor of Philosophy of Logic (Elsevier, 2007), The Cambridge Companion to Brentano (CUP, 2004), and A Companion to Philosophical Logic (Blackwell, 2002).

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Contributors

Introduction: Philosophy of Consciousness, Dale Jacquette

Part I: Historical Development
2. The Hard Problem of Understanding Descartes on Consciousness - Katherine Morris
3. Brentano's Aristotelian Concept of Consciousness - Liliana Albertazzi
4. Wittgenstein and the Concept of Consciousness - Garry L. Hagberg
5. 'Ordinary' Consciousness - Julia Tanney

Part II: Groundbreaking Concepts of Consciousness
6. Consciousness, Representation and the Hard Problem - Keith Lehrer
7. The Knowledge Argument and Two Interpretations of 'Knowing What it's Like' - Daniel Stoljar
8. Conscious and Unconscious Mental States - Richard Fumerton
9. Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness - Rocco Gennaro
10. Kripke on Mind-Body Identity - Scott Soames

Part III: Metaphilosophy of Consciousness Studies
11. Understanding Consciousness by Building It - Michael Graziano and Taylor W. Webb
12. The Illusion of Conscious Thought - Peter Caruthers
13. Actualism About Consciousness Reaffirmed - Ted Honderich
14. Cracking the Hard Problem of Consciousness - Dale Jacquette

Part IV: Mental Causation, Natural Law, and Intentionality of Conscious States
15. Towards Axiomatizing Consciousness - Selmer Bringsjord and Paul Bello
16. Intentionality and Consciousness - Carlo Ierna
17. Cognitive Approaches to Phenomenal Consciousness - Peter Mandik
18. Free Will and Consciousness - Alfred Mele
19. Notes Toward a Metaphysics of Mind - Joseph Margolis

Part V: Resources

20. Annotated Bibliography
21. Research Resources
22. A-Z of Key Terms and Concepts