Consciousness Essay, Research Paper
The relation of consciousness to the material world is puzzle, which has its origin in dualism, a philosophy of mind which posits their fundamental separation. Dualism, in turn, has its roots in folk wisdom. The belief that humans are more than bodies and that there is something in human nature that survives bodily death has its origins in prehistory; it becomes explicit in the mythology of Ancient Egypt and Assyria and was formulated into a philosophical position in the Platonic thought of Ancient Greece. But the contemporary view that the interaction of consciousness with matter poses a problem which may be beyond scientific understanding can be traced to a clearer formulation of dualism proposed by Descartes.
According to Descartes (1644) the Universe is composed of two fundamentally different substances, res cogitans, a substance which thinks, and res extensa, a substance which extends in space. Res extensa is the stuff of which the material world is made, including living bodies and brains; res cogitans is the stuff of consciousness. Descartes maintained that, in humans, res cogitans and res extensa interact via the pineal gland, located in the center of the brain. However, even in the seventeenth century, the causal interaction of substances as different as these was thought by some to pose an insuperable problem.
Leibniz (1686), for example, argued that only physical events could cause physical events and only mental events could cause mental events. Fortunately, he thought, God has arranged physical events and mental events into a pre-established harmony so that given sequences of mental and physical events unfailingly accompany each other (”parallelism”). Consequently, there is an apparent causal interaction of mind with body rather than an actual one. This view resurfaces in the contemporary assumption that for every conscious experience there is a distinct neural “correlate.” However, attribution of such correspondences to the workings of a munificent Deity has little appeal to the modern scientific mind.
Within twentieth century philosophy and science it is far more fashionable to reduce dualism to a form of materialism, for example to assume or attempt to show that consciousness is nothing more than a state or function of the brain (physicalism or functionalism). If either form of reduction is successful the explanatory gap left by dualism disappears, for the reason that all that needs to be explained can then be explained within the domain of natural science. Fashion, however, is beginning to change (see, for example, the debates between Dennett, Fenwick, Gray, Harnad, Humphrey, Libet, Lockwood, Marcel, Nagel, Searle, Shoemaker, Singer, Van Gulick, Velmans, and Williams in Ciba Foundation Symposium 174, 1993). The reasons for this are many – but in essence they have to do with the realization that once one has explained everything that there is to explain about the material structure and functioning of brains, one will still be left with the problems of consciousness. To put matters crudely, one cannot find consciousness by any conceivable histological examination of the brain. Nor, as Nagel (1974) puts it, can one know what it is like to be something from a physical description alone. In Velmans (1991a) I have considered functional explanations of consciousness, tracing functional models of the mind through from input to output and concluded that consciousness cannot be found within any information processing “box” within the brain. Consciousness accompanies or results from certain forms of processing but can be dissociated conceptually, and in most cases empirically from the processes with which it is commonly identified in the cognitive literature (perception, learning, memory, language, creativity and so on). The same can be said of models of functioning couched in other terms, such as parallel distributed processing or the language of neurophysiology (Gray 1995; Velmans 1995a).
In short, while it is likely that consciousness will eventually be found to be associated with given forms of processing, it looks increasingly likely that consciousness cannot be reduced to such processing. Or, to put matters another way, “first-person perspective facts” cannot be fully reduced to “third-person perspective facts” (cf Goldman 1993; Velmans 1991a,b, 1993a). In his recent “keynote” article (this issue), Chalmers (1995) comes to the same conclusion.
But if consciousness cannot be reduced to a state or function of the brain, how might one fill the explanatory gap left by dualism? Logically, it might be possible to reduce matter to forms of existence in the mind, for example to argue along with Berkeley (1710) that material events only exist in so far as they are perceived to exist (idealism). Idealism has its modern defenders, for example in some interpretations of the observer effect in quantum mechanics (the view that the Shrodinger wave equation only collapses into an actuality once an observation is made). In the macroworld it may also be true that the world as-perceived only exists if there are perceivers (Velmans 1990). However, as a general theory of the ontology of macroevents this position has its own well-known problems. It might be that the material world cannot have an appearance without perceivers, but it seems counterintuitive that its very existence is similarly vulnerable. Closing one’s eyes, for example, does not seem to be enough to make unpleasant events go away.
Другие работы по теме:
Downhill Skiing Essay Research Paper Style Exercise
Downhill Skiing Essay, Research Paper Style Exercise 1 I can still remember the first time I went downhill skiing; it was a cold and dry November day with little snowfall. Most of the snow on the hills was that polished, jet blown, artificial-ice/pseudo-snow; not the best situation for a first timer.
Buddhists In One Self Essay Research Paper
Selflessness Buddhism denies that there is anything corresponding to the common idea of a soul or self. Instead, the Buddha taught that the soul is a false notion imputed to a collection of constantly changing parts. These are referred to as the five “aggregates” (skandha): form, feelings, discriminations, consciousness, and compositional factors.
A Haunted House Treasures Of Life Essay
, Research Paper A Haunted House: Treasures of Life The short story “A Haunted House” is story with meaning, by portraying to us the treasure of life. When two ghosts are searching through their old house,
Awakening Essay Research Paper S Eliot
Awakening Essay, Research Paper .S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a poem which enters the dynamic consciousness of its title character, whose feelings, thoughts and emotions are displayed in a motley but organized sequence, as they ride the man’s wavering mood. His is a mood wavering more often towards haplessness than fulfillment, because Prufrock is a man caught in a vicious cycle of introspection, journey, and retreat.
Dream Deffered Essay Research Paper Dream DeferredHe
Dream Deffered Essay, Research Paper ?Dream Deferred? ?He knew as he stood there that he could never tell why he killed. It was not that he did not really want to tell, but the telling of it would have involved an explanation of his
Slaves Essay Research Paper In what way
Slaves Essay, Research Paper In what way do proletarians differ from slaves? The slave is sold once and for all; the proletarian must sell himself daily and hourly.
Jame
’s And Philosophical Psych Essay, Research Paper I agree with James stating “the girl in Midshipman Easy could not excuse the illegitimacy of her child by saying ‘it was a very small one’” (James 152). How can illegitimacy be a little one? Illegitimacy is illegitimacy, period. It is defined as being born of parents not married to each other.
Homers Odyssey And It
’s Relation To Todays Society Essay, Research Paper The Odyssey is extremely relevant today because stuff like this is still happening, not with swords and magic, of course, but with guns and politics.
Summary Of The Book Through The Tunnel
By Doris Lessing Essay, Research Paper Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing This story is about a young boy named Jerry who goes on vacation to a beach with his mother. One day, he sees a rock bay and wants to check it out. He goes over there and starts swimming and sees some foreign boys swimming under a rock wall.
Schopenhauer Essay Research Paper Schopenhauer sought to
Schopenhauer Essay, Research Paper Schopenhauer sought to understand and describe the world and the things of the world. Building off of the ideas of Plato, Descartes, and Kant, however doing away with the aspect of dualism in their theories, he developed the concept of Will and Representation. The world as Will according to Schopenhauer is all that exists for knowledge, only object in relation to subject, perception of a perceiver, in a word, idea.
Certainty Essay Research Paper The mind which
Certainty Essay, Research Paper The mind, which has grasped a right theory of knowledge, and has experienced it, that mind is on the road to certainty–the only kind of certainty that is open to the consciousness soul because it has begun to cross the threshold between the objective and sujbective worlds.
Entomology Essay Research Paper Entomology is the
Entomology Essay, Research Paper Entomology is the study of insects, involving their biology and control in relation to their environment and to man. Entomology also had an independent scientific discipline which had roots in biology.
Trans Of Human Consciousness Essay Research Paper
The transitions to a higher self of the human consciousness include two main historical transitions, Greek and Christian. The Greek transited from the mythical to the critical consciousness with the argument of philosophers such as Aristotle. The Christian transition is from that of a concept of rationality to an existential one by the aid of philosophers, like Augustine.
Kierkegaard Essay Research Paper Kierkegaard felt that
Kierkegaard Essay, Research Paper Kierkegaard felt that subjective reflection was more crucial to the individual life than objective reflection because it focused on passion and human existence instead of logic and impersonal truth. The objective world is the world of facts and truth independent of the perceptions of humans.
MacbethAtragic Hero Essay Research Paper In Macbeth
Macbeth_Atragic Hero Essay, Research Paper In Macbeth, the imagery of animals behavior and class status advances the theme of animals in relation to human characteristics. The examples discussed in my paper will
Communist Manifesto Essay Research Paper Manifesto of
Communist Manifesto Essay, Research Paper Manifesto of the Communist Party Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels Bourgeois and Proletarians The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation into a mere money relation.
Hume Truths Essay Research Paper Hume separates
Hume Truths Essay, Research Paper Hume separates his distinction of truths of into two categories. They are Relation of Ideas (ROF) and Matter of Fact (MOF). Hume states Relation of Ideas
Divine Command Essay Research Paper Divine CommandIn
Divine Command Essay, Research Paper Divine Command In my opinion, trying to differentiate between the Divine Command and the acts of God that impinge on one’s consciousness is one in the same. Divine command to me would basically be the entire Holy Bible. An act of God to me is just waking up in the morning and being able to breathe new air and live another day.
Materialism Vs Dualism Essay Research Paper Materialism
Materialism Vs Dualism Essay, Research Paper Materialism vs. Dualism There is no doubt that we are physical beings, but there is a question as to where our consciousness comes from. Can this consciousness come from a completely physical make up or do we have another non-physical entity? Does consciousness come from a physical brain or a non-physical mind? The two competing views of this question are materialism and dualism.
Illiad Essay Research Paper The Illiad has
Illiad Essay, Research Paper The Illiad has by far endured the test of time due to the relation of ancient Greek themes to that of modern day. An abundance of themes from Homer?s era can clearly be observed in today?s society such as emotion, war, and honor. These themes are portrayed throughout the book in various passages, speeches, and dialogue.
Hamlet Criticism Essay Research Paper In
Hamlet Criticism Essay, Research Paper In Hamlet ; Literary Remains, Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes Hamlet as an intricate planner who s thought process is slow and methodical. He describes Hamlet as someone having Supercilious activities of the mind, which, unseated from its healthy relation, is constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted from the world without throwing a mist over all common-place actualities.
Caliban Essay Research Paper Mowats essay emphasizes
Caliban Essay, Research Paper Mowat?s essay emphasizes Caliban?s significant role in The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. Caliban?s character, in relation to Prospero?s, expresses the actual relations between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of settlers and natives, Caliban being the native of the island, and Prospero, the settler.
Levels Of Consciousness Essay Research Paper Multiple
Levels Of Consciousness Essay, Research Paper Multiple Consciousness This is another chapter in the book titled The Psychology of Consciousness. This chapter examines the variations in consciousness. Ornstein proposes that an individual?s consciousness goes through numerous changes each day. There are daily changes in biological rhythms, borderline states between sleep and dreams, sleep and wakefulness, and daydreams.
Legalizing Marijuana Essay Research Paper Marijuana has
Legalizing Marijuana Essay, Research Paper Marijuana has been used throughout history in many different cultures to change mood, perception, and consciousness – in other words, to get high. Its effects range from increasing
Consciousness The Self And Personality Theory A
Critical Survey Of Theories Of Philosophical Arguments And Modern Psychological Personality Theories Essay, Research Paper Consciousness, the Self, and Personality Theory: A Critical Survey of Theories of
Cruel Tears Essay Research Paper In reading
Cruel Tears Essay, Research Paper In reading the play Cruel Tears, you will find that there is definitely a tragedy. However, it is unclear as to what the tragedy is caused by. In looking at Johnny and Jack you can start to unwind this debatable event. Did Johnny s weakness or Jack s jealousy cause this tragedy? It is unfortunate that more history of the relation between Johnny and Jack is not available.
Image Of Color Essay Research Paper I
Image Of Color Essay, Research Paper I had a friend he is kind and handsome, but in fact he is very sensitive about his balding crown. I didn?t care about his baldness, but I didn?t want hurt his feelings. So, I always try to avoid a topic about hair.
Sin Is Ignorance
– Socratic Definition Of Sin Essay, Research Paper Sin is Ignorance – Socratic definition of sin Sin is ignorance. This is well known Socratic definition of sin which, like everthing Socratic, is an opinion always worthy of attention. The difficulty with the Socratic definition is that it leaves undetermined how ignorance itself is to be more precisely understood, the question of its origin, ect.
Hume Essay Research Paper Humes
Hume Essay, Research Paper Hume?s “affirmation” David Hume makes a strong affirmation in section IV of an Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Hume states, “I shall venture to affirm as a general proposition, which admits of no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not, in any instance attained by reasonings a priori; but entirely from experience.” In this statement, when discussing “knowledge of this relation,” Hume is referring to the relation between cause and effect.
The Soul Essay Research Paper Out of
The Soul Essay, Research Paper Out of all the philosophers we have examined in this unit, Ren? Descartes (On Thinking and the Soul) presents the best argument about what a soul and body are. In contrast, I believe that Locke?s interpretation of the body, mind, soul and self was my least favorite interpretation.
Structure Of Hamlet Essay Research Paper Structure
Structure Of Hamlet Essay, Research Paper Structure of hamletThe structure of Shakespeare s “Hamlet”, lays on the little information received by Hamlet from the mysterious ghost. Among all the characters, Marcellus seems to have the deepest understanding of the personality of this ghost. He is the one who fears a relation with this ghost.
Gene Mutation Essay Research Paper Define Gene
Gene Mutation Essay, Research Paper Define Gene Mutation A change in the base sequence of a gene Outline the difference between an insertion and a deletion Explain the consequence of a base substitution mutation in relation to the