eBook - ePub
Introducing Consciousness
A Graphic Guide
David Papineau,Howard Selina
This is a test
- 176 pages
- English
- ePUB (adapté aux mobiles)
- Disponible sur iOS et Android
eBook - ePub
Introducing Consciousness
A Graphic Guide
David Papineau,Howard Selina
DĂ©tails du livre
Aperçu du livre
Table des matiĂšres
Citations
Ă propos de ce livre
'An excellent book' - Ted Honderich, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London (UCL)
Introducing Consciousness provides a comprehensive guide to the current state of consciousness studies. It starts with the history of the philosophical relation between mind and matter, and proceeds to scientific attempts to explain consciousness in terms of neural mechanisms, cerebral computation and quantum mechanics. Along the way, readers will be introduced to zombies and Chinese Rooms, ghosts in machines and Erwin Schrodinger's cat.
Foire aux questions
Comment puis-je résilier mon abonnement ?
Il vous suffit de vous rendre dans la section compte dans paramĂštres et de cliquer sur « RĂ©silier lâabonnement ». Câest aussi simple que cela ! Une fois que vous aurez rĂ©siliĂ© votre abonnement, il restera actif pour le reste de la pĂ©riode pour laquelle vous avez payĂ©. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Puis-je / comment puis-je télécharger des livres ?
Pour le moment, tous nos livres en format ePub adaptĂ©s aux mobiles peuvent ĂȘtre tĂ©lĂ©chargĂ©s via lâapplication. La plupart de nos PDF sont Ă©galement disponibles en tĂ©lĂ©chargement et les autres seront tĂ©lĂ©chargeables trĂšs prochainement. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Quelle est la différence entre les formules tarifaires ?
Les deux abonnements vous donnent un accĂšs complet Ă la bibliothĂšque et Ă toutes les fonctionnalitĂ©s de Perlego. Les seules diffĂ©rences sont les tarifs ainsi que la pĂ©riode dâabonnement : avec lâabonnement annuel, vous Ă©conomiserez environ 30 % par rapport Ă 12 mois dâabonnement mensuel.
Quâest-ce que Perlego ?
Nous sommes un service dâabonnement Ă des ouvrages universitaires en ligne, oĂč vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă toute une bibliothĂšque pour un prix infĂ©rieur Ă celui dâun seul livre par mois. Avec plus dâun million de livres sur plus de 1 000 sujets, nous avons ce quâil vous faut ! DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Prenez-vous en charge la synthÚse vocale ?
Recherchez le symbole Ăcouter sur votre prochain livre pour voir si vous pouvez lâĂ©couter. Lâoutil Ăcouter lit le texte Ă haute voix pour vous, en surlignant le passage qui est en cours de lecture. Vous pouvez le mettre sur pause, lâaccĂ©lĂ©rer ou le ralentir. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Est-ce que Introducing Consciousness est un PDF/ePUB en ligne ?
Oui, vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă Introducing Consciousness par David Papineau,Howard Selina en format PDF et/ou ePUB ainsi quâĂ dâautres livres populaires dans Philosophie et Esprit et corps en philosophie. Nous disposons de plus dâun million dâouvrages Ă dĂ©couvrir dans notre catalogue.
Informations
Sujet
PhilosophieSous-sujet
Esprit et corps en philosophieWhat is Consciousness?
The best way to begin is with examples rather than definitions.
Imagine the difference between having a tooth drilled without a local anaestheticâŠ
Again, think of the difference between having your eyes open and having them shutâŠ
When you shut your eyes, what disappears is your conscious visual experience.
Sometimes consciousness is explained as the difference between being awake and being asleep. But this is not quite right.
Dreams are sequences of conscious experiences, even if these experiences are normally less coherent than waking experiences.
Indeed, dream experiences, especially in nightmares or fantasies, can consciously be very intense, despite their lack of coherence â or sometimes because of this lack.
Consciousness is what we lose when we fall into a dreamless sleep or undergo a total anaesthetic.
The Indefinability of Consciousness
The reason for starting with examples rather than definitions is that no objective, scientific definition seems able to capture the essence of consciousness.
For example, suppose we try to define consciousness in terms of some characteristic psychological role that all conscious states play â in influencing decisions, perhaps, or in conveying information about our surroundings.
Or we might try to pick out conscious states directly in physical terms, as involving the presence of certain kinds of chemicals in the brain, say.
Any such attempted objective definition seems to leave out the essential ingredient. Such definitions fail to explain why conscious states feel a certain way.
Imagine a computer-brained robot whose internal states register âinformationâ about the world and influence the robotâs âdecisionsâ. Such design specifications alone donât seem to guarantee that the robot will have any real feelings.
The lights may be on, but is anyone at home?
The same point applies even if we specify precise chemical and physical ingredients for making the robot.
There is something ineffable about the felt nature of consciousness. We can point to this subjective element with the help of examples. But it seems to escape any attempt at objective definition.
Louis Armstrong (some say it was Fats Waller) was once asked to define jazz.
What is it Like to be a Bat?
When we talk about conscious mental states, like pains, or visual experiences, or dreams, we often run together subjective and objective conceptions of these states. We donât stop to specify whether we mean to be talking about the subjective feelings â what it is like to have the experience â or the objective features of psychological role and physical make-up.
Even so, these two sides can always be distinguished. This is the point of the American philosopher Thomas Nagelâs famous question: âWhat is it like to be a bat?â
Most bats find their way about by echo-location. They emit bursts of high-pitched sound and use the echoes to figure out the location of physical objects. So the intent of Nagelâs question is: âWhat is it like for bats to sense objects by echo-location?â
But for bats, to whom echo-location comes naturally, it is presumably not sounds they are aware of, but physical objects â just as vision makes humans aware of physical objects, not light waves.
But still, what is it like for bats to sense physical objects? Do they sense them as being bright or dark or coloured? Or do they rather sense them as having some kind of sonic texture? Do they even sense shapes as we do?
We canât answer these questions. We donât have a clue about what it is like to be a bat.
In raising his question, Nagel does not want to suggest that bats lack consciousness. He takes bats to be normal mammals, and as such just as likely to be conscious as cats and dogs. Rather, he wants to force us to distinguish between the two conceptions of conscious experiences, objective and subjective.
When we think about humans, we donât normally bother about Nagelâs distinction. We usually think of human consciousness simultaneously in subjective and objective terms â both in terms of how it feels and in terms of objectively identifiable goings-on in the brain.
The bats, however, force us to notice the distinction, precisely because we donât have any subjective grasp of bat sensations, despite having plenty of objective information about them.
Experience and Scientific Description
Nagel thus identifies something about experience that escapes scientific description. We lack this subjective something with bats, even after knowing everything science can tell us about them.
The moral then applies to conscious experiences in general.
Table des matiĂšres
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- What is Consciousness?
- Further Reading
- Bibliography
- Index
Normes de citation pour Introducing Consciousness
APA 6 Citation
Papineau, D., & Selina, H. (2015). Introducing Consciousness ([edition unavailable]). Icon Books Ltd. Retrieved from https://www.perlego.com/book/569516/introducing-consciousness-a-graphic-guide-pdf (Original work published 2015)
Chicago Citation
Papineau, David, and Howard Selina. (2015) 2015. Introducing Consciousness. [Edition unavailable]. Icon Books Ltd. https://www.perlego.com/book/569516/introducing-consciousness-a-graphic-guide-pdf.
Harvard Citation
Papineau, D. and Selina, H. (2015) Introducing Consciousness. [edition unavailable]. Icon Books Ltd. Available at: https://www.perlego.com/book/569516/introducing-consciousness-a-graphic-guide-pdf (Accessed: 14 October 2022).
MLA 7 Citation
Papineau, David, and Howard Selina. Introducing Consciousness. [edition unavailable]. Icon Books Ltd, 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2022.