Phenomenology and the Physical Reality of ConsciousnessThe 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 |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Part I Consciousness per se | 5 |
1 The material nature of consciousness | 7 |
2 The metaphysical and empirical status of consciousness | 41 |
3 Consciousness and temporality | 67 |
Part II Sensory consciousness | 85 |
The case of color | 87 |
5 Conscious sensation | 115 |
6 Perceptual intentionality | 141 |
7 Perception the world and the subject | 165 |
Part IV Thinking consciousness | 195 |
8 The intentionality of thoughts | 197 |
9 Thought the world and the thinking subject | 217 |
Summary | 245 |
| 255 | |
| 261 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
amplitude attaining bodily motions bodily priming bodily waves brain brown tone brown-tone causal character claim color quality concrete essence conscious sensation consciousness constitutes correlation dark deformation Descartes directed directedness disclosed distal doesn’t enactivism encoding enological exist external reality eyes feeling formation fully formed thought function glimpse grasp half-moon harmonic oscillation holding imaginative incipient intentionality intrinsic involves light locked-in syndrome masking material matter waves Merleau-Ponty modified momentum percepts mood muscle tissue muscle vibrations naïve realism ness object one’s ontological organism organism’s pain perceptual episode perceptual intent pertains phantom limb phenomenal phenomenological characterization phenomenon physical action positively assess predominant attention prone to positively qualia ready-made field realizable rehearsal representationalism representationalist sciousness seems self-disclosive action self-disclosive field self-disclosive waves self-intimation sense sensory quality sentience sheathes of waves sheer spatially specious present throbbing tion track variation veil of perception visual percept waves of muscle waves of self-disclosure