The Character of Consciousness

by Chalmers, David J.

• ISBN13: 9780195311105
• ISBN10: 0195311108
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

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.

Author Biography

David J. Chalmers is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Consciousness at the Australian National University. He is the author of THE CONSCIOUS MIND (OUP 1996), PHILOSOPHY OF MIND: Classic and Contemporary Readings (OUP 2002), and editor of the OUP series PHILOSOPHY OF MIND

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
The Problems of Consciousness
Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness	p. 3
Afterword: From "Moving Forward on the Problem of Consciousness"	p. 28
The Science of Consciousness
How Can We Construct a Science of Consciousness?	p. 37
Afterword: First-Person Data and First-Person Science	p. 52
What Is a Neural Correlate of Consciousness?	p. 59
On the Search for the Neural Correlate of Consciousness	p. 91
The Metaphysics of Consciousness
Consciousness and Its Place in Nature	p. 103
The Two-Dimensional Argument against Materialism	p. 141
Afterword: Other Anti-Materialist Arguments	p. 192
Conceptual Analysis and Reductive Explanation	p. 207
Concepts of Consciousness
The Content of Phenomenal Concepts	p. 251
The Epistemology of Phenomenal Belief	p. 277
Phenomenal Concepts and the Explanatory Gap	p. 305
The Contents of Consciousness
The Representational Character of Experience	p. 339
Afterword: The Two-Dimensional Contents of Perception	p. 372
Perception and the Fall from Eden	p. 381
The Matrix as Metaphysics 455
Afterword: Philosophical Notes	p. 479
The Unity of Consciousness
What Is the Unity of Consciousness?	p. 497
Appendix: Two-Dimensional Semantics	p. 541
Bibliography	p. 569
Subject Index	p. 587
Name Index	p. 593
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