MTU Library Catalogue

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Consciousness explained / Daniel C. Dennett ; illustrated by Paul Weiner.

By: Dennett, D. C. (Daniel Clement).
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookPublisher: London : Penguin, 1993, c1991Description: xiii, 511 p. : ill ; 20 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 0140128670.Subject(s): ConsciousnessDDC classification: 126
Contents:
Prelude: How are hallucinations possible? -- Part I: Problems and methods -- Explaining consciousness -- A visit to the phenomenological garden -- A method for phenomenology -- Part II: An empirical theory of the mind -- Multiple drafts versus the cartesian theater -- Time and experience -- The evolution of consciousness -- How words do things with us -- The architecture of the human mind -- Part III: The philosophical problems of consciousness -- Show and tell -- Dismantling the witness protection program -- Qualia disqaulified -- The reality of selves -- Consciousness imagined.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming that Cartesianism and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and artificial intelligence. What people think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but \"multiple drafts\" of reality composed by a computer-like \"virtual machine\". Dennett considers how consciousness could have evolved in human beings and confronts the classic mysteries of consciousness: the nature of introspection, the self or ego and its relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of non-human creatures.

Bibliography: (pages 469-491) and index.

Prelude: How are hallucinations possible? -- Part I: Problems and methods -- Explaining consciousness -- A visit to the phenomenological garden -- A method for phenomenology -- Part II: An empirical theory of the mind -- Multiple drafts versus the cartesian theater -- Time and experience -- The evolution of consciousness -- How words do things with us -- The architecture of the human mind -- Part III: The philosophical problems of consciousness -- Show and tell -- Dismantling the witness protection program -- Qualia disqaulified -- The reality of selves -- Consciousness imagined.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Daniel Dennett is the author of Brainstorms, Brainchildren, Elbow Room, Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea. He is currently the Distinguished Arts and Sciences Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He lives in North Andover, Massachusetts.