Questioning Consciousness: The Interplay of Imagery, Cognition, and Emotion in the Human Brain (Advances in Consciousness Research, Vol 2)

Part of a series which provides a forum for scholars to work within a coherent context for the study of consciousness in all its aspects, this book examines such topics as the relation between imaginary and perceptual consciousness and the ontological status of consciousness. Editorial page......Page 3 Title page......Page 4 Copyright page......Page 5 Table of contents......Page 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 8 INTRODUCTION Differences between Conscious and Non-conscious Processing: Why They Make a Difference......Page 10 1. The Legacy of Behaviorism......Page 20 2. 'Derivatively' versus 'Primitively' Unconscious Processes and the Various Levels of Semi-consciousness......Page 27 3. The Danger of Equivocating the Language of Consciousness: The Crucial Distinction Between 'Knowing' and Knowing......Page 30 4. The Distinction Between 'Desire' and Desire and Its Importance for Cognitive Theory; The Primacy of the Subjunctive Imagination in Conscious Processing......Page 36 1. Different Conscious Modalities with Similar 'Content': A Puzzle for Neuroscientists......Page 42 2. The Crucial Relation between 'Looking-for' and 'Looking-at'......Page 45 3. Consciousness of Images and of Negations; Consciousness of A Priori Negations of Contradictory Images......Page 50 4. Early and Late Selection for 'Attention': A Synthesis......Page 57 5. The Primacy of the Efferent over the Afferent in Conscious Processing......Page 60 6. Afferent-Efferent Relations in Dreaming and Waking Consciousness......Page 65 7. Transition to the Problem of Concepts......Page 72 CHAPTER TWO. From Images to Concepts......Page 76 1. The Relation between Images and 'Imageless Concepts'......Page 77 2. The Role of Inhibition......Page 83 3. Future Anticipations and Subjunctive Conditionals......Page 88 4. Conclusion......Page 93 1. How Logical Inference Rules Are Acquired and Executed......Page 98 (a) Learning and executing inference rules: Two sets of images or one ?......Page 106 (b) How can images ground syntax?......Page 112 (c) How are semantic differences bridged in working with image patterns?......Page 114 (d) How users of logic recognize rhythm patterns......Page 115 2. How Do Concepts Evolve from Images? A Developmental Perspective......Page 121 3. General Implications for Cognitive Theory......Page 131 CHAPTER FOUR. The Ontological Status of Consciousness......Page 142 1. Formulating the Essential Ontological Problem......Page 150 2. Why Theories of Interactionism and Causal Epiphenomenalism Have Failed......Page 154 3. Process and Substratum: How Consciousness and Its Physiological Correlates Can Be Inseparable yet Different......Page 157 4. The Multiple Realizability Problem......Page 160 5. Why the Process-Substratum Model Is Not a Psychophysical Identity Theory......Page 162 CHAPTER FIVE. The Priority of Process over Substratum: Consciousness as an Organic Phenomenon......Page 172 1. How Does 'Desire' Become Desire? Internal Conflict as an 'Ecological' Problem......Page 174 2. The Relationship between Consciousness and Organicity......Page 183 3. The Process-Substratum Relation: A Closer Look......Page 192 4. Conclusion......Page 198 1. Toward a Process-Substratum Approach to Memory, Emotion, and Symbolization......Page 204 2. Gendlin's 'Implicit Bodily Sense'......Page 216 3. How the Brain Learns to Recognize and Re-enact Efferent Memory-Behaviors......Page 221 4. Further Questions about Memory: Single-Trial Learning and the 'Feeling of Recognition'......Page 229 CONCLUSION The Centrality of Subjunctives......Page 238 REFERENCES......Page 248 Index......Page 266 'Questioning Consciousness brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently'imageless'inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from — yet interrelated with — non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum in the way that a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes. (Series A)' Questioning Consciousness brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on 'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently 'imageless' inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from yet interrelated with non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum in the way that a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes. (Series A) Questioning Consciousness brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on 'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently 'imageless' inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from - yet interrelated with - non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum like a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes.