0415183936.Routledge.Theories.of.Consciousness.An.Introduction.Mar.1999.pdf

THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

“This is a fine book, a fascinating set of discussions of an extremely interesting area.”

John Leslie, University of Guelph

“This is an excellent survey of recent theories of consciousness.”

Barry Loewer, Rutgers University

The most remarkable fact about the universe is that certain parts of it are conscious.

Somehow nature has managed to pull the rabbit of experience out of a hat made of

mere matter. Theories of Consciousness explores a number of ways to understand

consciousness and its place in the physical world. Spectacularly diverse, the spectrum

of theories ranges from those that identify consciousness with particular brain

processes to those that seemingly deny that consciousness even exists.

The attempt to understand consciousness is only as old as the scientific revolution.

As William Seager shows, Descartes can be seen as the pioneer of this project and

some aspects of his position still set the stage and the agenda for modern work. His

views vividly illustrate the problem of explaining the physical ‘generation’ of

consciousness and point to the fundamental importance of – or perhaps reveal the

basic error in – an appeal to the notion of mental representation. After addressing

Descartes, Seager considers theories that identify certain particular elements of

conscious experience (the so-called qualia ) with ‘vector codes’ within abstract spaces

defined by neural networks. From there, Seager proceeds to HOT theory, which regards

consciousness as the product of higher order thoughts about mental states. The

influential and provocative views of Daniel Dennett are closely examined. Theories

of Consciousness devotes a lot of attention to the new representational theory of

consciousness and the special problems created by the phenomena of conscious

thought, which lead to the conclusions that representation is indeed essential to

consciousness but that an internalist account of representation is required. In his

final chapter, Seager explores more speculative terrain: the idea that consciousness

might somehow be a fundamental feature of the universe, perhaps ubiquitous and

maybe linked to bizarre features of quantum physics.

Theories of Consciousness serves both to introduce a wide array of approaches

to consciousness as well as advance debate via a detailed critique of them. Philosophy

students, researchers with a particular interest in cognitive science and anyone who

has wondered how consciousness fits into a scientific view of the world will find this

book an illuminating and fascinating read.

William Seager is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto at

Scarborough. He is the author of Metaphysics of Consciousness (Routledge, 1991).

PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES IN SCIENCE

Edited by W. H. Newton-Smith

Balliol College, Oxford

REAL HISTORY

Martin Bunzl

BRUTE SCIENCE

Hugh LaFollette and Niall Shanks

LIVING IN A TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE

Mary Tiles and Hans Oberdick

THE RATIONAL AND THE SOCIAL

James Robert Brown

THE NATURE OF THE DISEASE

Lawrie Reznek

THE PHILOSOPHICAL DEFENCE OF PSYCHIATRY

Lawrie Reznek

INFERENCE TO THE BEST EXPLANATION

Peter Lipton

TIME, SPACE AND PHILOSOPHY

Christopher Ray

MATHEMATICS AND THE IMAGE OF REASON

Mary Tiles

EVIL OR ILL?

Lawrie Reznek

THE ETHICS OF SCIENCE

An Introduction

David B. Resnik

PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS

An Introduction to a World of Proofs and Pictures

James Robert Brown

THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

An introduction and assessment

William Seager

THEORIES

CONSCIOUSNESS

An introduction and assessment

William Seager

London and New York

First published 1999

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,

including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Seager, William, 1952–

Theories of Consciousness: an introduction and assessment/William Seager.

p. cm. – (Philosophical issues in science)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Consciousness 2. Mind and body. I. Title. II. Series

B808.9.S4 1999

128–dc21 98–34492

CIP

ISBN 0–415–18393–6 (hbk)

ISBN 0–415–18394–4 (pbk)

ISBN 0-203-05307-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-21654-7 (Glassbook Format)

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