Introducing Consciousness: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides) by David Papineau (PDF)

Description

An excellent book’ – Ted Honderich, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London (UCL) Introducing Consciousness provides a comprehensive guide to the current state of consciousness studies. It starts with the history of the philosophical relation between mind and matter, and proceeds to scientific attempts to explain consciousness in terms of neural mechanisms, cerebral computation and quantum mechanics. Along the way, readers will be introduced to zombies and Chinese Rooms, ghosts in machines and Erwin Schrodinger’s cat.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Cautionary warning: This book provides a good introduction only to a specific way of framing the problem of consciousness, and thus only to the specific kinds of questions which befuddle those philosophers of mind who operate within this way of framing the problem. I mean specifically the philosophy of mind in the analytic or logical empiricist tradition, where the primary question is how to reconcile consciousness with a materialist or naturalistic ontology. Thus what is missing is any substantial coverage of the way consciousness is treated in the phenomenological tradition, particularly in the work of Edmund Husserl. The author does mention Brentano, Husserl, and their claim that consciousness is intentionality, but he misinterprets their concept of intentionality as simply a claim of representationalism, as the latter is conceived in the aforementioned analytic tradition. This is a mistake. For Husserl, intentionality describes how consciousness is always – a priori – directed-toward something, toward an object, whether that something is vague or clear in meaning to consciousness. When Husserl describes consciousness as a transcendental condition, he does not mean that consciousness is some kind of ‘mental stuff’; rather, the term transcendental is a logical term, describing an a priori condition of possibility for referring to the world and objects at all. The author describes intentionality as the capacity to refer to mental representations of the world, but that is not what Husserl means at all; for Husserl intentionality is simply the way in which we, as consciousness, are directed toward anything at all, the world (how it appears as world to us), objects (how they appear as objects to us), or toward our scientific theories (how they appear as theories), concepts, and even figments of the imagination (as objects of imagination), etc. Problems of dualism or the substance (of consciousness) simply do not arise because Husserl claims that it is a mistake to attempt to ‘thing-ize’ consciousness as such, when it is the fundamental ground or basis from which things themselves in the world can appear as objects to us at all.

⭐Thorough introduction to the various thoughts and insights about Consciousness by respected philosophers through history. It’s not intended to be a deep dive, but they do give pointers to other more complete sources. If you want to know more about it without getting a degree in philosophy this si a great book.

⭐This is the first I’ve read on this topic.I think the authors offer a good survey of prominent thoughts about consciousness.The format of the book is exceedingly easy to read. It’s easy Not to get bogged down over some of the novel concepts that are discussed.The veil has lifted, just a little.I’m glad I read it.

⭐I love this book more than myself.

⭐love it

⭐Good for those with no education in this subject. It will get you thinking about the hard problem! Quick to read.

⭐I was hoping this book would be more about the architecture of the brain, and about consciousness as an evolutionary adaptation. In fact the book is overwhelmingly philosophical; Kurzweil and Minsky, for example, are not mentioned. I suppose part of the problem I have with the book is that a lot of time is spent on Dualism, which is just a non-starter for me. The book was still interesting, but wasn’t really what I wanted.

⭐The book was a fun read and laid out the complex issues concerning what consciousness is in an understandable format

⭐Good book but not the strongest exploration of consciousness, and the graphics for the most part didnt add huge amounts to the narrative, they were more of a background for certain quotes. I was expecting the graphics to be more diagrammatic or illuminating. But interesting enough

⭐I like this handy pocket book with so much concise information and in a fun reading experience. Good quality book, good value for money and postage great. Was a great gift

⭐Love this. It makes my brain hurt a bit even though it’s set out as a simple guide, but I really like that. The woman in the illustrations looks like Germaine Greer but that enhances its ap p eal as far as I’m concerned.

⭐Okay

⭐For a beginner like me this was a great read. It was easy to follow and understand the different views on consciousness. Different views are explained, criticized, followed up and built upon with new ideas. It’s easily finished in a day and gives you tons to think about. The only thing that felt a little off was the illustrations. They were fun but a bit useless and really didn’t add anything special. They should try to have more instructive illustrations so that the ideas put forward in the book are better understood.

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