Download or read book Questioning Consciousness written by Ralph D. Ellis and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Questioning Consciousness" brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on 'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently 'imageless' inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from yet interrelated with non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum in the way that a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes. (Series A)
Download or read book Questioning Consciousness written by Ralph D. Ellis and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Questioning Consciousness" brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on 'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently 'imageless' inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from yet interrelated with non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum in the way that a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes. (Series A)
Download or read book Neural Correlates of Consciousness written by Thomas Metzinger and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together an international group of neuroscientists and philosophers who are investigating how the content of subjective experience is correlated with events in the brain. The fundamental methodological problem in consciousness research is the subjectivity of the target phenomenon--the fact that conscious experience, under standard conditions, is always tied to an individual, first-person perspective. The core empirical question is whether and how physical states of the human nervous system can be mapped onto the content of conscious experience. The search for the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) has become a highly active field of investigation in recent years. Methods such as single-cell recording in monkeys and brain imaging and electrophysiology in humans, applied to such phenomena as blindsight, implicit/explicit cognition, and binocular rivalry, have generated a wealth of data. The same period has seen the development of a number of theories about NCC location. This volume brings together the leading experimentalists and theoreticians in the field. Topics include foundational and evolutionary issues, global integration, vision, consciousness and the NMDA receptor complex, neuroimaging, implicit processes, intentionality and phenomenal volition, schizophrenia, social cognition, and the phenomenal self. Contributors Jackie Andrade, Ansgar Beckermann, David J. Chalmers, Francis Crick, Antonio R. Damasio, Gerald M. Edelman, Dominic ffytche, Hans Flohr, N.P. Franks, Vittorio Gallese, Melvyn A. Goodale, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Beena Khurana, Christof Koch, W.R. Lieb, Erik D. Lumer, Thomas Metzinger, Kelly J. Murphy, Romi Nijhawan, Joëlle Proust, Antti Revonsuo, Gerhard Roth, Thomas Schmidt, Wolf Singer, Giulio Tononi
Download or read book Questions of Consciousness written by Anthony P. Cohen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-12-16 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the importance of the conscious self, and of the `conscious collectively', in the construction and interpretation of social relations and process.
Download or read book Consciousness written by Susan Blackmore and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 169 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness, the last great mystery for science, remains a hot topic. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion? Exciting new developments in brain science are continuing the debates on these issues, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This controversial book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments, and the major theories, whilst also outlining the amazing pace of discoveries in neuroscience. Covering areas such as the construction of self in the brain, mechanisms of attention, the neural correlates of consciousness, and the physiology of altered states of consciousness, Susan Blackmore highlights our latest findings. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Questioning Consciousness written by Ralph D. Ellis and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1995-06-29 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questioning Consciousness brings together neuroscientific, psychological and phenomenological research, combining in a readable format recent developments in image research and neurology. It reassesses the mind-body relation and research on 'mental models', abstract concept formation, and acquisition of logical and apparently 'imageless' inference skills. It is argued that to be conscious of an object is essentially to imagine in a habituated way what would happen if we were to perform certain actions in relation to the object; and that mental images fit together to build up abstract concepts. This analysis shows why conscious information processing is so structurally different from — yet interrelated with — non-conscious processing, and how mind and body interrelate as a process to its substratum in the way that a sound wave relates to the medium through which it passes. (Series A)
Download or read book Human and Animal Minds written by Peter Carruthers and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Claims about consciousness in animals are often made in support of their moral standing. Peter Carruthers argues that there is no fact of the matter about animal consciousness and it is of no scientific or ethical significance. Sympathy for an animal can be grounded in its mental states, but should not rely on assumptions about its consciousness.
Download or read book Ten Zen Questions written by Susan Blackmore and published by Oneworld Publications. This book was released on 2009-01-13 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using Zen meditation to unravel the mysteries of consciousness. The calming and de-stressing benefits of Zen meditation have long been known, but scientists are now considering its huge potential to influence our ability to understand and experience consciousness – though few will say it! Susan Blackmore is about to change all that: she’s a world expert in brain science who has also been practising Zen meditation for over twenty-five years. In this revolutionary book, she doesn’t push any religious or spiritual agenda but simply presents the methods used in Zen as an aid to help us understand consciousness and identity – concepts which have stumped scientists and philosophers – in an exciting new way. Each chapter takes as its starting point one of Zen’s - and science's - most intriguing questions such as, "Am I conscious now?" and "How does thought arise?"
Download or read book Questions on A Study in Consciousness written by and published by . This book was released on 1905 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Quest for Consciousness written by Christof Koch and published by Roberts Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness is the major unsolved problem in biology. Written as an introduction to the field and drawing upon clinical, psychological and physiological observations, this book seeks to answer questions of consciousness within a neuroscientific framework.
Download or read book Ontology of Consciousness written by Helmut Wautischer and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008-04-11 with total page 669 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars from many different disciplines examine consciousness through the lens of intellectual approaches and cultures ranging from cosmology research and cell biophysics laboratories to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism in a volume that extends consciousness studies beyond the limits of current neuroscience research. The "hard problem" of today's consciousness studies is subjective experience: understanding why some brain processing is accompanied by an experienced inner life. Recent scientific advances offer insights for understanding the physiological and chemical phenomenology of consciousness. But by leaving aside the internal experiential nature of consciousness in favor of mapping neural activity, such science leaves many questions unanswered. In Ontology of Consciousness, scholars from a range of disciplines—from neurophysiology to parapsychology, from mathematics to anthropology and indigenous non-Western modes of thought—go beyond these limits of current neuroscience research to explore insights offered by other intellectual approaches to consciousness. These scholars focus their attention on such philosophical approaches to consciousness as Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, North American Indian insights, pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilization, and the Byzantine Empire. Some draw on artifacts and ethnographic data to make their point. Others translate cultural concepts of consciousness into modern scientific language using models and mathematical mappings. Many consider individual experiences of sentience and existence, as seen in African communalism, Hindi psychology, Zen Buddhism, Indian vibhuti phenomena, existentialism, philosophical realism, and modern psychiatry. Some reveal current views and conundrums in neurobiology to comprehend sentient intellection. Contributors Karim Akerma, Matthijs Cornelissen, Antoine Courban, Mario Crocco, Christian de Quincey, Thomas B. Fowler, Erlendur Haraldsson, David. J. Hufford, Pavel B. Ivanov, Heinz Kimmerle, Stanley Krippner, Armand J. Labbé, James Maffie, Hubert Markl, Graham Parkes, Michael Polemis, E Richard Sorenson, Mircea Steriade, Thomas Szasz, Mariela Szirko, Robert A.F. Thurman, Edith L.B. Turner, Julia Watkin, Helmut Wautischer
Download or read book Mind and Consciousness written by Patrick Grim and published by Automatic Press / VIP. This book was released on 2009 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debates concerning the nature of mind and consciousness are active and ongoing, with implications for philosophy, psychology, artificial intelligence and the neurosciences. This book collects interviews with some of the foremost philosophers of mind, focusing on open questions, promising projects, and their own intellectual histories. The result is a rich glimpse of the contemporary debate through some of the people who make it what it is. Interviews with Lynne Rudder Baker, David Chalmers, Daniel Dennett, Fred Dretske, Owen Flanagan, Samuel Guttenplan, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, John Heil, Terence Horgan, Douglas Hofstadter, Frank Jackson, Jaegwon Kim, William Lycan, Alva No , Hilary Putnam, David Rosenthal, John Searle, Steven Stich, Galen Strawson, Michael Tye.
Download or read book Consciousness written by Susan Blackmore and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-27 with total page 838 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a theory that explains the essence of consciousness? Or is consciousness itself an illusion? Am I conscious now? Now considered the 'last great mystery of science', consciousness was once viewed with extreme scepticism and rejected by mainstream scientists. It is now a significant area of research, albeit a contentious one, as well as a rapidly expanding area of study for students of psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. This edition of Consciousness, revised by author team Susan Blackmore and Emily Troscianko, explores the key theories and evidence in consciousness studies ranging from neuroscience and psychology to quantum theories and philosophy. It examines why the term ‘consciousness’ has no recognised definition and provides an opportunity to delve into personal intuitions about the self, mind, and consciousness. Featuring comprehensive coverage of all core topics in the field, this edition includes: Why the problem of consciousness is so hard Neuroscience and the neural correlates of consciousness Why we might be mistaken about our own minds The apparent difference between conscious and unconscious Theories of attention, free will, and self and other The evolution of consciousness in animals and machines Altered states from meditation to drugs and dreaming Complete with key concept boxes, profiles of well-known thinkers, and questions and activities suitable for both independent study and group work, Consciousness provides a complete introduction to this fascinating field. Additional resources are available on the accompanying companion website: www.routledge.com/cw/blackmore
Download or read book The Power of Now written by Eckhart Tolle and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2010-10-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's no wonder that The Power of Now has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 30 foreign languages. Much more than simple principles and platitudes, the book takes readers on an inspiring spiritual journey to find their true and deepest self and reach the ultimate in personal growth and spirituality: the discovery of truth and light. In the first chapter, Tolle introduces readers to enlightenment and its natural enemy, the mind. He awakens readers to their role as a creator of pain and shows them how to have a pain-free identity by living fully in the present. The journey is thrilling, and along the way, the author shows how to connect to the indestructible essence of our Being, "the eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad forms of life that are subject to birth and death." Featuring a new preface by the author, this paperback shows that only after regaining awareness of Being, liberated from Mind and intensely in the Now, is there Enlightenment.
Download or read book Kundalini Consciousness written by J. Robin E. Harger and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2014-09-16 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is intended to describe, explain and explore the states of higher consciousness that are inevitably associated with the achievement of Enlightenment and thereby to suggest procedures that can help others to attain such insights as may be relevant for themselves.
Download or read book The Fragility of Consciousness written by Frederick G. Lawrence and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2017-01-23 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frederick G. Lawrence is the authoritative interpreter of the work of Bernard Lonergan and an incisive reader of twentieth-century continental philosophy and hermeneutics. The Fragility of Consciousness is the first published collection of his essays and contains several of his best known writings as well as unpublished work. The essays in this volume exhibit a long interdisciplinary engagement with the relationship between faith and reason in the context of the crisis of culture that has marked twentieth- and twenty-first century thought and practice. Frederick G. Lawrence, with his profound and generous commitment to the intellectual life of the church, has produced a body of work that engages with Heidegger, Gadamer, Habermas, Ricoeur, Strauss, Voegelin, and Benedict XVI among others. These essays also explore various themes such as the role of religion in a secular age, political theology, economics, neo-Thomism, Christology, and much more. In an age marked by social, cultural, political, and ecclesial fragmentation, Lawrence models a more generous way – one that prioritizes friendship, conversation, and understanding above all else.
Download or read book On Consciousness Science Subjectivity Updated Works on Global Workspace Theory written by Bernard J. Baars and published by Nautilus Press. This book was released on 2019-09-26 with total page 682 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The works of Bernard Baars collected here are among the foundational texts of the scientific study of consciousness. Their influence in cognitive science and philosophy of mind is enormous, and their impact on my own thinking has been profound." --Murray Shanahan, Professor of Cognitive Robotics, Dept of Computing, ICL Global Workspace Theory (GWT) began with this question: "How does a serial, integrated and very limited stream of consciousness emerge from a nervous system that is mostly unconscious, distributed, parallel and of enormous capacity?" GWT is a widely used framework for the role of conscious and unconscious experiences in the functioning of the brain. A set of explicit assumptions that can be tested, as many of them have been. These updated works, from the recipient of INNS 2019 Hermann von Helmholtz Life Contribution Award, form a coherent effort to organize a large and growing body of scientific evidence about conscious brains. Throughout human history, people have perceived the conscious brain as the great nexus of human life, of social relationships, of their personal identities and histories, in encounters with new challenges. Consciousness under its many labels and manifestations is widely seen to be one of the core mysteries of life. Many therapeutic approaches can be viewed in a global workspace framework, including traditional psychodynamics and depth psychology, but also cognitive behavioral techniques, and, indeed, many other kinds of carefully studied human functions. Making progress in understanding consciousness therefore has an endless number of implications - philosophical, metaphysical, scientific, medical, clinical, and practical. A valuable reference for technical audiences and a vigorous intellectual hike for the layman." --Kirkus Reviews How can we understand the evidence? The best answer today is a 'global workspace architecture, ' first developed by cognitive modeling groups led by Alan Newell and Herbert A. Simon. The term "global workspace" comes from Artificial Intelligence, where it refers to a fleeting memory domain that allows for cooperative problem-solving by large collections of specialized programs. Global Workspace Theory (GWT) therefore assumes that the brain can be viewed as a "society of mind." Global Workspace (GW) theory is consistent with our current knowledge, and can be enriched to include other aspects of human experience. Stan Franklin and co-workers have built on GWT to sketch out a more general theory of cognition - LIDA: Cognitive Architecture's Computational Implementation of GWT. Stanislas Dehaene and Jean-Pierre Changeux in Paris developed experimentally testable models, making further testable claims about the brain basis of visual consciousness - The Dehaene-Changeux Model (DCM): Global Neuronal Workspace is Part of GWT. Global Workspace Dynamics (GWD) is the most current version of GWT - attempting to account for complexities of the living brain. These updated works trace the beginnings of GWT/GWD through the continued rise of brain evidence and psychological understanding. On Consciousness is an indispensable addition to the library of both students and experts studying mind, brain, and behavior. "Bernie Baars is a giant on whose shoulders the future science of consciousness will stand." --Antti Revonsuo, PhD, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Skövde, Sweden
