The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory | |||
Chalmers (David) | |||
This Page provides (where held) the Abstract of the above Book and those of all the Papers contained in it. | |||
Colour-Conventions | Disclaimer | Books / Papers Citing this Book | Notes Citing this Book |
BOOK ABSTRACT:
ContentsIntroduction: Taking Consciousness Seriously
→ What is consciousness?
→ The phenomenal and the psychological concepts of mind
→ The double life of mental terms
→ The two mind-body problems
→ Two concepts of consciousness
→ Supervenience2
→ Reductive explanation
→ Logical supervenience3 and reductive explanation
→ Conceptual truth and necessary truth
→ Almost everything is logically supervenient on the physical
→ Is consciousness logically supervenient on the physical?
→ The failure of reductive explanation
→ Cognitive modeling
→ Neurophysiological explanation
→ The appeal to new physics
→ Evolutionary explanations
→ Whither reductive explanation?
→ An argument against materialism
→ Objection from a posteriori necessity
→ Other arguments for dualism
→ Is this epiphenomenalism?
→ The logical geography of the issues
→ Reflections on naturalistic dualism
→ Consciousness and cognition
→ The paradox of phenomenal judgment
→ On explaining phenomenal judgments
→ Arguments against explanatory irrelevance
→ The argument from self-knowledge
→ The argument from memory
→ The argument from reference
→ Toward a nonreductive theory
→ Principles of coherence
→ More on the notion of awareness
→ The explanatory role of coherence principles
→ Coherence as a psychophysical law
→ The principle of organizational invariance
→ Absent qualia
→ Fading qualia
→ Inverted qualia
→ Dancing qualia
→ Nonreductive functionalism
→ Toward a fundamental theory
→ Aspects of information
→ Some supporting arguments
→ Is experience ubiquitous?
→ The metaphysics of information
→ Open question
→ Machine consciousness
→ On implementing a computation
→ In defense of strong AI
→ The Chinese room and other objections
→ External objections
→ Conclusion
→ Two mysteries
→ The framework of quantum mechanics6
→ Interpreting quantum mechanics7
→ The Everett interpretation
→ Objections to the Everett interpretation
BOOK COMMENT:
Oxford University Press, 1996. See Chalmers - The Conscious Mind: In search of a fundamental theory for Chalmers' page on the book.
"Alward (Peter) - Is Phenomenal Pain the Primary Intension of 'Pain'?"
Source: Metaphysica 5.1 (2004), pp. 15-28
Author’s AbstractDavid Chalmers, in his recent book The Conscious Mind1, defends a conceivability argument for property dualism. In order to avoid the difficulties for such arguments posed by a posteriori necessities, he invokes a two-dimensional modal2 framework. But in order to do this, he needs to make substantial assumptions linking thought and talk with elements of the framework. In particular, he needs to assume that phenomenal qualities serve as the primary intensions of our sensation terms. In this paper, I argue that this assumption cannot be sustained.
COMMENT: Review of "Chalmers (David) - The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory".
"Chalmers (David) - The Conscious Mind Reviews"
Source: Website
Author’s AbstractI get to choose the excerpts, so take all this with a grain of salt (though I've tried to be reasonably balanced). Reviews are arranged chronologically (until I stopped updating this page, in 1998). I've also included a few non-review articles focusing on the book. I give some very brief replies here; I have a separate page for more detailed responses to some articles on my work.
COMMENT: Reviews of "Chalmers (David) - The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory". Link.
"Levine (Joseph) - Review of David Chalmers's 'The Conscious Mind'"
Source: Mind - 107/428 (October 1998)
COMMENT: Review of "Chalmers (David) - The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory".
"Chalmers (David) - Taking Consciousness Seriously"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Introduction
Author’s Abstract
"Chalmers (David) - Two Concepts of Mind"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 1
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - Supervenience and Explanation"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 2
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - Can Consciousness be Reductively Explained?"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 3
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - Naturalistic Dualism"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 4
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - The Paradox of Phenomenal Judgment"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 5
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - The Coherence between Consciousness and Cognition"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 6
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - Absent Qualia, Fading Qualia, Dancing Qualia"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 7
Philosophers Index AbstractI argue for a principle of organizational invariance: systems with the same fine-grained functional organization have the same sort of conscious experience. I argue that absent qualia and inverted qualia are (naturally or nomologically) impossible, using thought-experiments1 involving replacement of neurons by silicon2 chips. If absent qualia are possible, a phenomenon I call "fading qualia" is possible; if inverted qualia are possible, a phenomenon I call "dancing qualia" is possible; but it is very implausible that fading qualia or dancing qualia are possible. So it is very implausible that absent or inverted qualia possible. This leads to a nonreductive functionalism, according to which experience is determined by (but not necessarily constituted by) functional organization.
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - Consciousness and Information: Some Speculation"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 8
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - Strong Artificial Intelligence"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 9
Sections
"Chalmers (David) - The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics"
Source: Chalmers - The Conscious Mind, 1996, Chapter 10
Sections
© Theo Todman, June 2007 - Jan 2021. | Please address any comments on this page to theo@theotodman.com. | File output: Website Maintenance Dashboard | Return to Top of this Page | Return to Theo Todman's Philosophy Page | Return to Theo Todman's Home Page |