The Character of Consciousness (Philosophy of Mind)

What is consciousness? How does the subjective character of consciousness fit into an objective world? How can there be a science of consciousness? In this sequel to his groundbreaking and controversial The Conscious Mind, David Chalmers develops a unified framework that addresses these questions and many others. Starting with a statement of the "hard problem" of consciousness, Chalmers builds a positive framework for the science of consciousness and a nonreductive vision of the metaphysics of consciousness. He replies to many critics of The Conscious Mind, and then develops a positive theory in new directions. The book includes original accounts of how we think and know about consciousness, of the unity of consciousness, and of how consciousness relates to the external world. Along the way, Chalmers develops many provocative ideas: the "consciousness meter", the Garden of Eden as a model of perceptual experience, and The Matrix as a guide to the deepest philosophical problems about consciousness and the external world. This book will be required reading for anyone interested in the problems of mind, brain, consciousness, and reality. Contents......Page 10 Introduction......Page 12 I. The Problems of Consciousness......Page 30 1. Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness......Page 32 Afterword: From “Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness”......Page 57 II. The Science of Consciousness......Page 64 2. How Can We Construct a Science of Consciousness?......Page 66 Afterword: First-Person Data and First-Person Science......Page 81 3. What Is a Neural Correlate of Consciousness?......Page 88 4. On the Search for the Neural Correlate of Consciousness......Page 120 III. The Metaphysics of Consciousness......Page 130 5. Consciousness and Its Place in Nature......Page 132 6. The Two-Dimensional Argument against Materialism......Page 170 Afterword: Other Anti-Materialist Arguments......Page 221 7. Conceptual Analysis and Reductive Explanation (with Frank Jackson)......Page 236 IV. Concepts of Consciousness......Page 278 8. The Content of Phenomenal Concepts......Page 280 9. The Epistemology of Phenomenal Belief......Page 306 10. Phenomenal Concepts and the Explanatory Gap......Page 334 V. The Contents of Consciousness......Page 366 11. The Representational Character of Experience......Page 368 Afterword: Th e Two-Dimensional Contents of Perception......Page 401 12. Perception and the Fall from Eden......Page 410 13. The Matrix as Metaphysics......Page 484 Afterword: Philosophical Notes......Page 508 VI. The Unity of Consciousness......Page 524 14. What Is the Unity of Consciousness? (with Tim Bayne)......Page 526 Appendix: Two-Dimensional Semantics......Page 570 Bibliography......Page 598 C......Page 616 E......Page 617 L......Page 618 P......Page 619 S......Page 620 Z......Page 621 D......Page 622 M......Page 623 S......Page 624 Z......Page 625
What is consciousness? How does the subjective character of consciousness fit into an objective world? How can there be a science of consciousness? In this sequel to his groundbreaking and controversial The Conscious Mind, David Chalmers develops a unified framework that addresses these questions and many others. Starting with a statement of the "hard problem" of consciousness, Chalmers builds a positive framework for the science of consciousness and a nonreductive vision of the metaphysics of consciousness. He replies to many critics of The Conscious Mind, and then develops a positive theory in new directions. The book includes original accounts of how we think and know about consciousness, of the unity of consciousness, and of how consciousness relates to the external world. Along the way, Chalmers develops many provocative ideas: the "consciousness meter", the Garden of Eden as a model of perceptual experience, and The Matrix as a guide to the deepest philosophical problems about consciousness and the external world. This book will be required reading for anyone interested in the problems of mind, brain, consciousness, and reality. In this book David Chalmers follows up and extends his thoughts and arguments on the nature of consciousness that he first set forth in his groundbreaking 1996 book, The Conscious Mind.