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Time: 20 hours
Level: Advanced
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 Introduction Resource- Consciousness is at once the most important and most baffling aspect of the mind. It is the very heart of our existence yet it is extraordinarily difficult to describe and explain. This unit introduces...
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- 1 Consciousness Resource
- Consciousness: The having of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings; awareness. The term is impossible to define except in terms that are unintelligible without a grasp of what consciousness means.… Consciousness...
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- 2.1 Introduction Resource
- We use the words ‘conscious’ and ‘consciousness’ in a variety of ways. We talk of losing and regaining consciousness, of being conscious of one's appearance and of taking conscious decisions. We speak...
- 2.2 What it's like Resource
- Suppose you have just had a dental procedure under general anaesthetic and are coming round. You are aware of a dazzling light above you and of a muffled voice echoing in your ears. There is sickness in...
- 2.3 Some distinctions Resource
- I now want to distinguish consciousness, in the sense outlined above, from some related phenomena. This should help to clarify the concept further and avoid potential confusion. What follows draws in part...
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| | 3 The elusiveness of consciousness
- 3 The elusiveness of consciousness Resource
- Consciousness is, in a sense, the most familiar thing in the world: our lives consist of a succession of conscious experiences. Yet consciousness can also seem elusive and mysterious, and this section...
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| | 4 The problem of consciousness
- 4.1 Introduction Resource
- Let us turn now to the problem of consciousness. What exactly is the issue here that so divides philosophers and is the focus of such vigorous debate? In broad terms, it is the question of the place of...
- 4.2 Naturalism and reductive explanation Resource
- There is a widespread commitment among contemporary philosophers and scientists to a naturalistic view of the world. In broad terms, naturalism is the view that everything is scientifically explicable...
- 4.3 The easy problems and the hard problem Resource
- What implications do naturalism and strong naturalism have for the study of the mind? There are two. First, naturalists will deny the existence of souls, spirits and other psychic phenomena and maintain...
- 4.4 Physicalism and the hard problem Resource
- I introduced the hard problem as an explanatory problem – the problem of explaining how consciousness arises. But it can also be presented as a metaphysical problem – the problem of saying what kind of...
- 4.5 The function of consciousness Resource
- There is another problem I want to mention briefly. What is the function of consciousness? What difference does it make to have phenomenally conscious experiences?
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- 5 Conclusion Resource
- This unit has laid the groundwork for a study of consciousness. We have identified the phenomenon in which we are interested, looked at some of its mysterious features and considered the problems it poses....
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- 6 Further reading Resource
- For a more advanced introduction to the topic of consciousness, which includes an historical survey of philosophical and psychological work on the topic and a survey of recent debates, see:
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| | References and Acknowledgements | |
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