On the Contrary : Critical Essays, 1987-1997

by Paul M. Churchland and Patricia Smith Churchland

• ISBN13: 9780262531658
• ISBN10: 0262531658
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-06-18
• Publisher: Bradford Books

Summary

Paul M. and Patricia S. Churchland are towering figures in the fields of philosophy, neuroscience, and consciousness. This collection was prepared in the belief that the most useful and revealing of anyone's writings are often those shorter essays penned in conflict with or criticism of one's professional colleagues. The essays present the Churchlands' critical responses to a variety of philosophical positions advanced by some two dozen philosophical theorists. The book is divided into three parts: part I, Folk Psychology and Eliminative Materialism; part II, Meaning, Qualia, and Emotion: The Several Dimensions of Consciousness; and part III, the Philosophy of Science. V. S. Ramachandran and Rick Grush are coauthors on two of the essays.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Folk Psychology and Eliminative Materialism

Folk Psychology

Origins of the Idea

Development of the Idea

Consequences of the Idea

Criticism and Defense of the Idea

Transformation of the Idea

Theory, Taxonomy, and Methodology: A Reply to Haldane's "Understanding Folk"

Evaluating Our Self-Conception

The "Functional Kinds" Objection

The "Self-Defeating" Objection

The "What Could Falsify It?" Objection

The "It Serves Quite Different Purposes" Objection

The "No Existing Alternatives" Objection

Concluding Remarks

Activation Vectors vs. Propositional Attitudes: How the Brain Represents Reality

Concluding Remarks

Meaning, Qualia, and Emotion: The Several Dimensions of Consciousness

Could a Machine Think?

Intertheoretic Reduction: A Neuroscientist's Field Guide

Intertheoretic Reduction: Some Prototypical Cases

The Lessons for Neuroscience

Conceptual Similarity across Sensory and

The Problem

Painting a Different Picture

Some Precursors of These Ideas

The Laakso-Cottrell Experiments

Future Directions

Appendix: The Gutman Point-Alienation Measure

Betty Crocker's Theory of Consciousness

The Rediscovery of Light

A Searle-like Family of Arguments Concerning the Nature of Light

Three Jackson-Chalmers-like Arguments Concerning the Nature of

Critical Commentary

A Final Nagel-Searle Argument for Irreducibility

Some Diagnostic Remarks on Qualia

A Final Point About Light

Knowing Qualia: A Reply to Jackson

Postscript: 1997

Recent Work on Consciousness: Philosophical, Theoretical, and Empirical

The Loyal Opposition

The Loyal Opposition Disarmed

Phenomenal Qualia: Theory and Data

Consciousness and Attention: Theory and Data

Filling In: Why Dennett Is Wrong

Dennett's Hypothesis

Psychophysical Data: The Blind Spot

Psychophysical Data: Cortical Scotomata

Psychophysical Data: Artificial Scotomata

Psychophysics and the Krauskopf Effect

The Blind Spot and Cortical Physiology: The Gattass Effect

Artificial Scotomata and Cortical Physiology: The Gilbert Effect

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Gaps in Penrose's Toilings

Introduction

Compact Version of the Penrose Argument5

Are There Instances of Conscious Human Reasoning That Are

Quasicrystals: Arguments Against B3

Are Microtubules the Generators of Consciousness?

Conclusions

Feeling Reasons

Introduction: The Social Significance of Agent Autonomy and Responsibility

Are We Responsible and In Control if Our Choices and Actions Are Caused?

Are We More In Control and More Responsible to the Degree That Emotions Play a Lesser Role and Reaso...

Are There Significant Neurobiological Differences Between "In Control"

Learning What Is Rational and What Is Not

What Happens to the Concept of Responsibility?

Conclusions

Acknowledgments

The Philosophy of Science

A Deeper Unity: Some Feyerabendian Themes in Neurocomputational Form

Introduction

Neural Nets: An Elementary Account

Epistemological Issues in Neurocomputational Guise

Reply to Glymour

To Transform the Phenomena: Feyerabend, Proliferation, and Recurrent Neural Networks

Introduction

Proliferation: The Original Argument

Proliferation: An Old Neurocomputational Argument

Proliferation: A New Neurocomputational Argument

Concluding Remarks

How Parapsychology Could Become a Science

An Argument for Tolerance

Parapsychology: The Theoretical Side

Parapsychology: The Experimental Side

Notes

References

Index

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