Consciousness Explained

Intro; Title Page; Copyright; Table of Contents; Dedication; Preface; 1 Prelude: How Are Hallucinations Possible?; 1. The Brain in the Vat; 2. Pranksters in the Brain; 3. A Party Game Called Psychoanalysis; 4. Preview; Part I PROBLEMS AND METHODS; 2 Explaining Consciousness; 1. Pandora's Box: Should Consciousness Be Demystified?; 2. The Mystery of Consciousness; 3. The Attractions of Mind Stuff; 4. Why Dualism Is Forlorn; 5. The Challenge; 3 A Visit to the Phenomenological Garden; 1. Welcome to the Phenom; 2. Our Experience of the External World; 3. Our Experience of the Internal World.;"Brilliant ... as audacious as its title ... Mr. Dennett's exposition is nothing short of brilliant."--George Johnson, New York Times Book Review Consciousness Explained is a a full-scale exploration of human consciousness. In this landmark book, Daniel Dennett refutes the traditional, commonsense theory of consciousness and presents a new model, based on a wealth of information from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence. Our current theories about conscious life-of people, animal, even robots--are transformed by the new perspectives found in this book. Intro Title Page Copyright Table of Contents Dedication Preface 1 Prelude: How Are Hallucinations Possible? 1. The Brain in the Vat 2. Pranksters in the Brain 3. A Party Game Called Psychoanalysis 4. Preview Part I PROBLEMS AND METHODS 2 Explaining Consciousness 1. Pandora's Box: Should Consciousness Be Demystified? 2. The Mystery of Consciousness 3. The Attractions of Mind Stuff 4. Why Dualism Is Forlorn 5. The Challenge 3 A Visit to the Phenomenological Garden 1. Welcome to the Phenom 2. Our Experience of the External World 3. Our Experience of the Internal World. 4. Affect4 A Method for Phenomenology 1. First Person Plural 2. The Third-Person Perspective 3. The Method of Heterophenomenology 4. Fictional Worlds and Heterophenomenological Worlds 5. The Discreet Charm of the Anthropologist 6. Discovering What Someone Is Really Talking About 7. Shakey's Mental Images 8. The Neutrality of Heterophenomenology Part II AN EMPIRICAL THEORY OF THE MIND 5 Multiple Drafts Versus the Cartesian Theater 1. The Point of View of the Observer 2. Introducing the Multiple Drafts Model 3. Orwellian and Stalinesque Revisions. 4. The Theater of Consciousness Revisited5. The Multiple Drafts Model in Action 6 Time and Experience 1. Fleeting Moments and Hopping Rabbits 2. How the Brain Represents Time 3. Libet's Case of "Backwards Referral in Time" 4. Libet's Claim of Subjective Delay of Consciousness of Intention 5. A Treat: Grey Walter's Precognitive Carousel 6. Loose Ends 7 The Evolution of Consciousness 1. Inside the Black Box of Consciousness 2. Early Days Scene One: The Birth of Boundaries and Reasons Scene Two: New and Better Ways of Producing Future 3. Evolution in Brains, and the Baldwin Effect. 4. Plasticity in the Human Brain: Setting the Stage5. The Invention of Good and Bad Habits of Autostimulation 6. The Third Evolutionary Process: Memes and Cultural Evolution 7. The Memes of Consciousness: The Virtual Machine to Be Installed 8 How Words Do Things with Us 1. Review: E Pluribus Unum? 2. Bureaucracy versus Pandemonium 3. When Words Want to Get Themselves Said 9 The Architecture of the Human Mind 1. Where Are We? 2. Orienting Ourselves with the Thumbnail Sketch 3. And Then What Happens? 4. The Powers of the Joycean Machine 5. But Is This a Theory of Consciousness? Part III THE PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS10 Show and Tell 1. Rotating Images in the Mind's Eye 2. Words, Pictures, and Thoughts 3. Reporting and Expressing 4. Zombies, Zimboes, and the User Illusion 5. Problems with Folk Psychology 11 Dismantling the Witness Protection Program 1. Review 2. Blindsight: Partial Zombiehood? 3. Hide the Thimble: An Exercise in Consciousness-Raising 4. Prosthetic Vision: What, Aside from Information, Is Still Missing? 5. "Filling In" versus Finding Out 6. Neglect as a Pathological Loss of Epistemic Appetite 7. Virtual Presence. Daniel Dennett's "brilliant" exploration of human consciousness — named one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times — is a masterpiece beloved by both scientific experts and general readers ( New York Times Book Review ). Consciousness Explained is a full-scale exploration of human consciousness. In this landmark book, Daniel Dennett refutes the traditional, commonsense theory of consciousness and presents a new model, based on a wealth of information from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence. Our current theories about conscious life — of people, animal, even robots — are transformed by the new perspectives found in this book. "Dennett is a witty and gifted scientific raconteur, and the book is full of fascinating information about humans, animals, and machines. The result is highly digestible and a useful tour of the field." — Wall Street Journal This book revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming that Cartesianism and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and artificial intelligence. What people think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but "multiple drafts" of reality composed by a computer-like "virtual machine". Dennett considers how consciousness could have evolved in human beings and confronts the classic mysteries of consciousness: the nature of introspection, the self or ego and its relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of non-human creatures. Advances a new theory of consciousness based on insights gleaned from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence, and clears away obsolete myths about the process of thinking in conscious beings