The Ego Tunnel The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self

by Metzinger, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780465020690
• ISBN10: 0465020690
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-07-27
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Philosopher and scientist Thomas Metzinger argues that neuroscience's picture of the "self" as an emergent phenomenon of our biology and the attendant fact that the "self" can be manipulated--and even controlled--raises novel and serious ethical questions. If, as Metzinger argues, our conception of the self is a sort of tunnel-vision-like experience of the world, with little left in and much left out, can there be better or worse states of consciousness? And if so, what should we do to try to achieve them? Here, Metzinger outlines his vision of a moral philosophy of the mind.

Author Biography

Thomas Metzinger directs the Theoretical Philosophy Group at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. He lives in Berlin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Consciousness Problem
The Appearance of a World	p. 15
A Tour of the Tunnel	p. 25
The Unity of Consciousness	p. 66
Ideas and Discoveries
Out of the Body and into the Mind: Body Image, Out-of-Body Experiences, and the Virtual Self	p. 75
From Ownership to Agency to Free Will	p. 115
Philosophical Psychonautics: What can we Learn from Lucid Dreaming?	p. 133
Dreaming	p. 149
The Empathic Ego	p. 163
The Shared Manifold	p. 174
The Consciousness Revolution
Artificial Ego Machines	p. 187
Consciousness Technologies and the Image of Humankind	p. 207
A New Kind of Ethics	p. 219
Notes	p. 241
Index	p. 261
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