The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Consciousness

From Descartes and Cartesian mind-body dualism in the 17th century though to 21st-century concerns about artificial intelligence programming, The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Consciousness presents a compelling history and up-to-date overview of this burgeoning subject area.

Acknowledging that many of the original concepts of consciousness studies are found in writings of past thinkers, it begins with introductory overviews to the thought of Descartes through to Kant, covering Brentano's restoration of empiricism to philosophical psychology and the major figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: Russell, Wittgenstein, Ryle and James. These opening chapters on the forces in the history of consciousness lay the groundwork needed to understand how influential contemporary thinkers in the philosophy of mind interpret the concept of consciousness.

Featuring leading figures in the field, Part II discusses current issues in a range of topics progressing from the so-called hard problem of understanding the nature of consciousness, to the methodology of invoking the possibility of philosophical zombies and the prospects of reductivism in philosophy of mind. Part III is dedicated to new research directions in the philosophy of consciousness, including chapters on experiment objections to functionalism and the scope and limits of artificial intelligence.

Equipped with practical research resources including an annotated bibliography, a research guide and a glossary, The Bloomsbury Companion to the Philosophy of Consciousness is an authoritative guide for studying the past, present and future of consciousness.

Preface

1. Introduction: Philosophy of Consciousness - Dale Jacquette

Part I: Historical Development
2. Descartes and Locke on Consciousness - Katherine Morris
3. Brentano's Aristotelian Concept of Consciousness - Liliana Albertazzi
4. Wittgenstein on Consciousness
5. Explaining Consciousness: William James and the Young Science of Mind - Alexander Klein
6. The Concept of Consciousness: Remarks from an 'Ordinary Language Perspective' - Julia Tanney

Part II: Groundbreaking Concepts of Consciousness
7. Consciousness and Representation - Keith Lehrer
8. The Knowledge Argument, Matter and Consciousness - Daniel Stoljar
9. Reductivism in the Philosophy of Consciousness - Richard Fumerton
10. Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness - Rocco Gennaro
11. Kripke's Necessary Nonidentity of Body and Mind - Scott Soames

Part III: Metaphilosophy of Consciousness Studies

12. The Machine That Insists it's Conscious - Michael Graziano
13. Pre-Reflexive Consciousness and the Constitutive Role of Language
- Wolfgang Huemer
14. The Illusion of Conscious Thought - Peter Caruthers
15. Actualism About Consciousness Reaffirmed - Ted Honderich
16. Cracking the Hard Problem of Consciousness - Dale Jacquette

Part IV: Mental Causation, Natural Law, and Intentionality of Conscious States

17. Can Consciousness be Axiomatized? - Selmer Bringsjord
18. Intentionality as an Aspect of Consciousness - Carlo Ierna
19. Free Will and Consciousness - Alfred Mele
20. Action as a Site of Mind and Culture Within the Human Sciences - Joseph Margolis

Part V: Resources

22. Annotated Bibliography
23. Research Resources
24. A-Z of Key Terms and Concepts

Index

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