Download or read book Human and Machine Consciousness written by David Gamez and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2018-03-07 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness is widely perceived as one of the most fundamental, interesting and difficult problems of our time. However, we still know next to nothing about the relationship between consciousness and the brain and we can only speculate about the consciousness of animals and machines. Human and Machine Consciousness presents a new foundation for the scientific study of consciousness. It sets out a bold interpretation of consciousness that neutralizes the philosophical problems and explains how we can make scientific predictions about the consciousness of animals, brain-damaged patients and machines. Gamez interprets the scientific study of consciousness as a search for mathematical theories that map between measurements of consciousness and measurements of the physical world. We can use artificial intelligence to discover these theories and they could make accurate predictions about the consciousness of humans, animals and artificial systems. Human and Machine Consciousness also provides original insights into unusual conscious experiences, such as hallucinations, religious experiences and out-of-body states, and demonstrates how ‘designer’ states of consciousness could be created in the future. Gamez explains difficult concepts in a clear way that closely engages with scientific research. His punchy, concise prose is packed with vivid examples, making it suitable for the educated general reader as well as philosophers and scientists. Problems are brought to life in colourful illustrations and a helpful summary is given at the end of each chapter. The endnotes provide detailed discussions of individual points and full references to the scientific and philosophical literature.

Download or read book The Illusion of Conscious Will written by Daniel M. Wegner and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2003-08-11 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.

Download or read book Modifications of Consciousness written by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, et al. and published by Philaletheians UK. This book was released on 2019-03-10 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are dual, manifested, aspects of an ultimate state of Unconsciousness, the One and only Reality. The Secret Doctrine asserts that out of a Perfect, Unconditioned, Unmanifested Consciousness, myriads of short-lived, bundles of individualised consciousnesses keep emerging, like sparks of a fire. That is how Unknowable Causality evolves to omnipresent mind and life immanent in every atom, and keeps transferring informing principles from one planet to the other, from one eternity to another. Intelligent Law is an aspect of Cosmic Consciousness. It governs Universe, Man and All. Consciousness, Universe, and Karman are one and the same, inseparable and inter-dependent. The whole Universe is the sum total of multifarious states of Consciousness. The only Reality is Ultimate Unconsciousness within the bosom of Parabrahman. All else is maya-illusion. Cosmic Ideation and Cosmic Substance are inseparable, interdependent, and readily convertible into each other. The Fire of Unconsciousness unfolds from within without and differentiates to sparks of self-consciousness. Even our senses are progressive differentiations of That One Sense-Consciousness. Beware! Impulses of Psychic Force, act from without within. Noetic Force acts from within without. Spirit and Matter are illusionary aspects of the One Consciousness which underpins and sustains All. Spirit can only cognise Itself through the flesh or “matter.” Thus matter is an aggregate of objects of possible perception. Endless Worlds are set into motion by an unquenchable Desire for Self-Knowledge that burns silently in the bosom of Parabrahman. When “the last vibration of the Seventh Eternity thrills through Infinitude,” the Fire of Desire becomes Fohat, or Light of Logos. It differentiates primordial matter into atoms, seeds of manifold Life, ever-revealing latent, unmanifested, potentialities of Infinite Thought and Ideals to the perception of finite minds. Consciousness is septenary. It vibrates and illumines the seven brains of the heart as it does the seven divisions or rays around the pineal gland. For the heart is the abode of Spiritual Consciousness. The Higher Mind or Manas is Spiritual Self-Consciousness, itself; Divine Consciousness, when united with Buddhi. The Lower Mind with its seven gateways is the organ of animal or terrestrial consciousness. Every single cell in our body is gifted with a brain and a consciousness of its own. Thus Consciousness is the essence of our being, the mystery in us that calls itself “I,” a breath of Heaven. One day, when our true individuality is withdrawn in the Unconscious Immateriality of its Divine Counterpart, it mayregain the true happiness of Non-Being. But “the seed is not quickened, except it die.” Everything in the Universe, throughout its kingdoms, is conscious, i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind; a kind we do not always understand. Every World emanates from a single Unevolved Cause. And, like all else, our World has a Soul. Though eternal and changeless in Its inner essence, the Soul of the World alters during Its outer manifestations. This has been the subject of centuries of scholastic disputations. Consciousness is the One and only Capacity of Perception, ever analysing and reflecting upon Itself. Humanity is a periodic manifestation of Cosmic Consciousness. Spirit, Soul, and Matter are Consciousness’ three aspects integrated by Consciousness Itself. Universal Consciousness is unlimited and beyond space and time. While it can only be expressed through matter, it is not of matter, It is our Sensing Principle. Other considerations of the intrinsic Intelligence of Consciousness include the Unity of Spirit and Trinity of Nature. Personal, individualised, consciousness, ego and egoism, mind and mentality, self and selfishness, I-ness and me-ness, character and charisma, persona and personality, individualism and capitalism, they are all one and the same: they are the cause of separateness and all suffering in the world! Consciousness can neither imagine its own cessation nor its own beginning. Though Its contents are of a pseudo-infinite duration, It is the dream that never dies. Every plane of consciousness creates a different level of illusion. Everything is maya-illusion. Can we ever account for the origin of consciousness? Life and death are illusions, time is illusion. The illusion of time is produced by the panoramic succession of our states of consciousness. Time does not exist even in sleep! All things are real but only relatively real. The Infinite can only see Itself through the eyes of the finite. When the Infinite cannot conceive Itself by Itself, How can the finite ever perceive the Infinite? Such feats are beyond the boundary of human capability. That’s why the Infinite is, and will remain forever, Unknown and Unknowable. Only by abandoning personal thoughts and pursuits, the lower mind can begin to ascend toward its higher counterpart. Such an uplifting of consciousness can only be attained by self-devised but unselfish efforts, checked by Karman. Finally, Madame Blavatsky affirms three requisites for those who are after self-knowledge.

Download or read book The Conceptual Representation of Consciousness written by Thomas Natsoulas and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-11 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book seeks to explicate six basic concepts of consciousness from a variety of psychological, philosophical, historical, and lexicographic perspectives.

Download or read book Consciousness Redux written by Martin H. Stein and published by Jason Aronson. This book was released on 1998 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a selection of the papers of a beloved teacher and mentor by several of his students and collaborators.

Download or read book Mind written by and published by . This book was released on 1877 with total page 604 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Issues for 1896-1900 contain papers of the Aristotelian Society.

Download or read book The River of Consciousness written by Oliver Sacks and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the best-selling author of Gratitude, On the Move, and Musicophilia, a collection of essays that displays Oliver Sacks's passionate engagement with the most compelling and seminal ideas of human endeavor: evolution, creativity, memory, time, consciousness, and experience. Oliver Sacks, a scientist and a storyteller, is beloved by readers for the extraordinary neurological case histories (Awakenings, An Anthropologist on Mars) in which he introduced and explored many now familiar disorders--autism, Tourette's syndrome, face blindness, savant syndrome. He was also a memoirist who wrote with honesty and humor about the remarkable and strange encounters and experiences that shaped him (Uncle Tungsten, On the Move, Gratitude). Sacks, an Oxford-educated polymath, had a deep familiarity not only with literature and medicine but with botany, animal anatomy, chemistry, the history of science, philosophy, and psychology. The River of Consciousness is one of two books Sacks was working on up to his death, and it reveals his ability to make unexpected connections, his sheer joy in knowledge, and his unceasing, timeless project to understand what makes us human.

Download or read book American Medicine written by and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 784 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Consciousness in Indian Philosophy written by Sthaneshwar Timalsina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-10-27 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the analysis of pure consciousness as found in Advaita Vedanta, one of the main schools of Indian philosophy. According to this tradition, reality is identified as Brahman, the world is considered illusory, and the individual self is identified with the absolute reality. Advaitins have various approaches to defend this argument, the central one being the doctrine of 'awareness only' (cinmatra). Following this stream of argument, what consciousness grasps immediately is consciousness itself, and the notions of subject and object arise due to ignorance. This doctrine categorically rejects the plurality of individual selves and the reality of objects of perception. Timalsina analyzes the nature of consciousness as understood in Advaita. He first explores the nature of reality and pure consciousness, and then moves on to analyze ignorance as propounded in Advaita. He then presents Advaita arguments against the definitions of 'object' of cognition found in various other schools of Indian philosophy. In this process, the positions of two rival philosophical schools of Advaita and Madhva Vedanta are explored in order to examine the exchange between these two schools. The final section of the book contrasts the Yogacara and Advaita understandings of consciousness. Written lucidly and clearly, this book reveals the depth and implications of Indian metaphysics and argument. It will be of interest to scholars of Indian philosophy and Religious Studies.

Download or read book Thinking on the Other Side of Zero written by Alan Joseph Oliver and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you ever felt someone's eyes on the back of your head? Or perhaps you may have known who was on the phone, even before you lifted the receiver. Science calls these moments of knowing anomalies. If an anomaly cannot be measured it does not exist so far as science is concerned. I wonder how science measures a mind. Whenever I feel someone's eyes boring into the back of my head I ask myself if the brain can transmit information, and given the measurements carried out on the brain I have concluded that the answer lies elsewhere. All of the evidence points to mind being non-local, and what that means can be more than you have bargained for. For a start it means that mind exists outside of time and space, and points to the likelihood that conscious awareness can exist beyond the body: even beyond this particular life. And since mind exercises the faculty of memory, its content must also be outside of time and space. This last point was particularly helpful to the people who sought my assistance as a healer when they were facing death. My anomaly was always able to make some real contribution to them, and I hope it does the same for you.

Download or read book Phenomenal Consciousness and Mind Body Problem written by V.N. Misra and published by DK Printworld (P) Ltd. This book was released on 2019-07-05 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About the Book The problem of explanatory gap in the phenomenal consciousness has risen in the Western philosophy mainly because the consciousness itself and its manifestations or reflections are treated separately. Whereas, according to the Vedānta school of India, the phenomenal consciousness is merely manifestations of self-consciousness which is embodied in the human beings. In this approach, the phenomenal consciousness and self-consciousness are one and the same thing because the former depends upon the latter. Hence, there is no explanatory gap in the phenomenal consciousness. Similar is the case with the mind–body problem which exists in the Western philosophy mainly because the mind is treated as synonymous with consciousness. This book solves the above problems on the basis of the Indian philosophy and existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre. In both the philosophies, there is no explanatory gap in the phenomenal consciousness and the mind–body problem. About the Author V.N. Misra, PhD, retired from Indian Economic Service (IES), has worked as Economic Advisor in different ministries of Government of India. He had several consultancy assignments with the ADB, FAO, World Bank and IFPRI. Dr Misra has also to his credit more than forty research papers published in reputed journals in the field of agricultural policy and development, labour, employment, rural poverty, etc. He has also co-authored (with V.S. Vyas and D.S. Tyagi) a book, Significance of New Technology for Small Farmers. Dr Misra’s study on Terms of Trade is a published work. He has now shifted his interest from economics to philosophy and has recently published two books: Science of Consciousness: A Synthesis of Vedānta and Buddhism and Saṁsāra and Nirvāṇa: A Unifying Vision.

Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness written by Philip David Zelazo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-14 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.

Download or read book Phenomenology and the Physical Reality of Consciousness written by Arthur Melnick and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The predominant positive view among philosophers and scientists alike is that consciousness is something realized in brain activity. This view, however, largely fails to capture what consciousness is like according to how it shows itself to conscious beings. What this work proposes instead is that consciousness is a phenomenon that exists in and throughout the body. Apart from whether or not it involves intentionality and apart from whether or not it involves awareness of the self, consciousness is self-intimating, self-revealing, self-disclosing. Self-disclosure is the definitive phenomenological character of consciousness in all its forms. Taking this stance as a point of departure, the book presents a specific account of what bodily field phenomenon consciousness is. In this way, the current stalemate in philosophy over the question of the physical reality of consciousness is broken. Series A

Download or read book Unfolding Consciousness written by Edi Bilimoria and published by Shepard-Walwyn (IPG). This book was released on 2024-03-11 with total page 1433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the Living Universe and Intelligent Powers in Nature and Humans, author Edi Bilimoria heralds the new science of consciousness and offers the readers a roadmap and necessary tools to achieve future growth. Presented in three volumes, plus volume IV contains references, resources & further reading, they reveal the unity of the Eastern and Western branches of our perineal wisdom. Bilimoria shows how science seeks truth using a synthesis of both traditions. Evidence from a wide range of sources— scientific, medical, philosophical, religious, and cultural— is put forward to argue the case that humans are spiritual beings, primarily, and not merely complicated biological machines. Bilimoria teaches that consciousness is not the product of matter but the primary &‘ element' from which all else emanates. This process and its underlying mechanisms are described in detail with much clarity. This work has over 2000 references and is supported by copious tables and diagrams, plus individual chapter summaries and sidenotes to assist readers in navigating the multidimensional terrain traversed.Key areas - The scientific and esoteric worldviews compared and contrasted - The ultimate promise of science - The &‘ soft' and &‘ hard' problems of consciousness: How external input to the physical senses results in an internal, subjective experience - Quantum physics: its contribution to a new scientific paradigm - The Mystery Teachings of All Ages: their worldwide unity and central message - &‘ Wet computers' and computers: Is the brain no different, in principle, from a computer? - Death and after: the transition and continuity of consciousness in other realms - Paranormal phenomena and apparitions - Subtle bodies - Evolution and destiny - Powers latent in human beings - Divinity and the united message of all world religions - The question of immortality - The primacy of consciousness and the manner of its unfoldment from the unmanifest realms to the physical world Edi Bilimoria' s guest appearance on the Shepheard-Walwyn podcast series can be found on this link. https://shepheardwalwyn.com/edi-bilimoria-unfolding-consciousness-why-sapolsky-is-wrong-and-how-to-get-in-tune-with-life/

Download or read book The Nature of Consciousness written by Ned Block and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997-09-10 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intended for anyone attempting to find their way through the large and confusingly interwoven philosophical literature on consciousness, this reader brings together most of the principal texts in philosophy (and a small set of related key works in neuropsychology) on consciousness through 1997, and includes some forthcoming articles. Its extensive coverage strikes a balance between seminal works of the past few decades and the leading edge of philosophical research on consciousness.As no other anthology currently does, The Nature of Consciousness provides a substantial introduction to the field, and imposes structure on a vast and complicated literature, with sections covering stream of consciousness, theoretical issues, consciousness and representation, the function of consciousness, subjectivity and the explanatory gap, the knowledge argument, qualia, and monitoring conceptions of consciousness. Of the 49 contributions, 18 are either new or have been adapted from a previous publication.

Download or read book The Post graduate and Wooster Quarterly written by and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Principles of mental physiology with their applications to the training and discipline of the mind and the study of its morbid conditions written by William Benjamin Carpenter and published by . This book was released on 1883 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: