Perplexities of consciousness [electronic resource] / Eric Schwitzgebel.
2011
B808.9 .S39 2011eb
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Details
Title
Perplexities of consciousness [electronic resource] / Eric Schwitzgebel.
Author
ISBN
9780262295338 (electronic bk.)
9780262014908
9780262014908
Published
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2011]
Copyright
©2011
Language
English
Description
1 online resource (xii, 224 pages) : illustrations.
Call Number
B808.9 .S39 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
126
Summary
Do you dream in color? If you answer Yes, how can you be sure? Before you recount your vivid memory of a dream featuring all the colors of the rainbow, consider that in the 1950s, researchers found that most people reported dreaming in black and white. In the 1960s--when most movies were in color and more people had color television sets--the vast majority of reported dreams contained color. The most likely explanation for this, according to philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, is not that exposure to black-and-white media made people misremember their dreams. It is that we simply don't know whether or not we dream in color. In Perplexities of Consciousness, Schwitzgebel examines various aspects of inner life--dreams, mental imagery, emotions, and other subjective phenomena--and argues that we know very little about our stream of conscious experience. In fact, he contends, we are prone to gross error about our ongoing emotional, visual, and cognitive experiences. Western philosophical tradition is nearly unanimous on the accuracy of our knowledge or current conscious experience. Schwitzgebel is skeptical. Drawing broadly from historical and recent philosophy and psychology to examine such topics as visual perspective, human echolocation (about which he is doubtful), and the unreliability of introspection even about emotional states (do we really enjoy Christmas? a family dinner?), he finds us singularly inept in our judgments about conscious experience.
Note
"A Bradford book."
Do you dream in color? If you answer Yes, how can you be sure? Before you recount your vivid memory of a dream featuring all the colors of the rainbow, consider that in the 1950s, researchers found that most people reported dreaming in black and white. In the 1960s--when most movies were in color and more people had color television sets--the vast majority of reported dreams contained color. The most likely explanation for this, according to philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, is not that exposure to black-and-white media made people misremember their dreams. It is that we simply don't know whether or not we dream in color. In Perplexities of Consciousness, Schwitzgebel examines various aspects of inner life--dreams, mental imagery, emotions, and other subjective phenomena--and argues that we know very little about our stream of conscious experience. In fact, he contends, we are prone to gross error about our ongoing emotional, visual, and cognitive experiences. Western philosophical tradition is nearly unanimous on the accuracy of our knowledge or current conscious experience. Schwitzgebel is skeptical. Drawing broadly from historical and recent philosophy and psychology to examine such topics as visual perspective, human echolocation (about which he is doubtful), and the unreliability of introspection even about emotional states (do we really enjoy Christmas? a family dinner?), he finds us singularly inept in our judgments about conscious experience.
Do you dream in color? If you answer Yes, how can you be sure? Before you recount your vivid memory of a dream featuring all the colors of the rainbow, consider that in the 1950s, researchers found that most people reported dreaming in black and white. In the 1960s--when most movies were in color and more people had color television sets--the vast majority of reported dreams contained color. The most likely explanation for this, according to philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, is not that exposure to black-and-white media made people misremember their dreams. It is that we simply don't know whether or not we dream in color. In Perplexities of Consciousness, Schwitzgebel examines various aspects of inner life--dreams, mental imagery, emotions, and other subjective phenomena--and argues that we know very little about our stream of conscious experience. In fact, he contends, we are prone to gross error about our ongoing emotional, visual, and cognitive experiences. Western philosophical tradition is nearly unanimous on the accuracy of our knowledge or current conscious experience. Schwitzgebel is skeptical. Drawing broadly from historical and recent philosophy and psychology to examine such topics as visual perspective, human echolocation (about which he is doubtful), and the unreliability of introspection even about emotional states (do we really enjoy Christmas? a family dinner?), he finds us singularly inept in our judgments about conscious experience.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Series
Life and mind.
Available in Other Form
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Table of Contents
Recoloring the dreamworld
Do things look flat?
Galton's other folly
Human echolocation
Titchener's introspective training manual
Do you have constant tactile experience of your feet in your shoes? and some pessimistic thoughts about theories of consciousness
The unreliability of naive introspection
When your eyes are closed, what do you see?
Do things look flat?
Galton's other folly
Human echolocation
Titchener's introspective training manual
Do you have constant tactile experience of your feet in your shoes? and some pessimistic thoughts about theories of consciousness
The unreliability of naive introspection
When your eyes are closed, what do you see?