Consciousness and MindConsciousness and Mind presents David Rosenthal's influential work on the nature of consciousness. Central to that work is Rosenthal's higher-order-thought theory of consciousness, according to which a sensation, thought, or other mental state is conscious if one has a higher-order thought (HOT) that one is in that state. The first four essays develop various aspects of that theory. The next three essays present Rosenthal's homomorphism theory of mental qualities and qualitative consciousness, and show how that theory fits with and helps sustain the HOT theory. A crucial feature of homomorphism theory is that it individuates and taxonomizes mental qualities independently of the way we're conscious of them, and indeed independently of our being conscious of them at all. So the theory accommodates the qualitative character not only of conscious sensations and perceptions, but also of those which fall outside our stream of consciousness. Rosenthal argues that, because this account of mental qualities makes no appeal to consciousness, it enables us to dispel such traditional quandaries as the alleged conceivability of undetectable quality inversion, and to disarm various apparent obstacles to explaining qualitative consciousness and understanding its nature. Six further essays build on the HOT theory to explain various important features of consciousness, among them the complex connections that hold in humans between consciousness and speech, the self-interpretative aspect of consciousness, and the compelling sense we have that consciousness is unified. Two of the essays, one an extended treatment of homomorphism theory, appear here for the first time. There is also a substantive introduction, which draws out the connections between the essays and highlights their implications. |
Contents
| 1 | |
I EXPLAINING CONSCIOUSNESS | 19 |
II QUALITATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS AND HOMOMORPHISM THEORY | 133 |
III CONSCIOUSNESS EXPRESSION AND INTERPRETATION | 227 |
IV SELFCONSCIOUSNESS | 337 |
| 365 | |
| 371 | |
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Consciousness and Mind David M. Rosenthal,Professor of Philosophy David Rosenthal Limited preview - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
actually appear apply argued argument assert attitude aware behavior beliefs Cambridge causal cause character claim cognitive color concepts conclude connection conscious considerations corresponding creatures describe desires determine differences dispositional distinct doubt effect example exist experience explain feelings first-person force function going higher-order thoughts hold HOTs idea independent individual inference insincere intentional intentionality intrinsic introspective intuitions involves kind matter mean mental qualities mind modality Moore’s paradox Moreover nature nonconscious noted occur one’s oneself Oxford pain particular perceiving perceptible performance perhaps person Philosophical physical objects possible present processes properties propositional qualitative properties question raining reason refer reflect relations relevant rely remarks represent respect result scious seems sensations sense sensory qualities sentence similarities simply sometimes speech acts state’s being conscious suggests suppose theory things transitively conscious types typically University Press various verbally expressed visual