Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives [Hardcover]

Quentin Smith (Editor), Aleksandar Jokic (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0199241287 | ISBN-13: 978-0199241286 | Publication Date: March 27, 2003

Consciousness is perhaps the most puzzling problem we humans face in trying to understand ourselves. Here, eighteen essays offer new angles on the subject. The contributors, who include many of the leading figures in philosophy of mind, discuss such central topics as intentionality, phenomenal content, and the relevance of quantum mechanics to the study of consciousness.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`Brian McLaughlin contributes a fine paper on colour-consciousness.' Religious Studies

`David Chalmers has a superb defence of the existence of phenomenal beliefs that are not conceptually reducible to physicalist and functional analysis.' Religious Studies --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Quentin Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at Western Michigan University. Aleksandar Jokic is Executive Director of the Center for Philosophical Education at Santa Barbara City College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 27, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199241287
• ISBN-13: 978-0199241286
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,008,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authors of the Essays, July 7, 2004

By 

Philosopher - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives (Paperback)

Unfortunately, the most important information about the book is missing from the ads for it, namely, the names of the authors who wrote new, original essays for the book. The authors include Michael Tye, Stephen Stich, Robert Van Gulick, William Lycan, Joseph Levine, Ernest Sosa, David Chalmers, Brian Loar, Brian McLaughlin, David Papineau, James Fetzer, Anthony Brueckner, Shaun Nichols, Kristin Andrews, E. Alex Beroukhim. There is a special section on "consciousness and quantum mechanics", with essays by Barry Loewer, Quentin Smith, Michael Lockwood and Don Page.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Out of print?!, December 9, 2004

By 

T. Bachman (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives (Hardcover)

How can this thing be out of print? It just came out last year, and it's great. What gives?

If you're interested in consciousness, my suggestion is to email Oxford press and tell them you're trying to find this nifty collection of essays, and to rev up the printing machines again. Of course, I don't know if that will do anything, but it seems a real shame this book isn't better known. I don't know why Oxford hasn't sent to Amazon a photo of the cover and some inside pages. Unreal.

Anyway, this baby's got 18 essays from top thinkers working on consciousness, like Papineau, Lockwood, Chalmers, Levine, etc.

I especially appreciate the attention paid to the question of to what degree consciousness relates to quantum mechanics.

I also appreciate that it is free from the dogmatism that afflicts other essay collections. A number of perspectives are represented.

If you can find this, and you're keen on this topic, this is definitely worth getting. It's not for beginners, but after you read Blackmore's book you should be able to get pretty much everything in here.

Good luck - and shame on Oxford Press!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars availability, May 19, 2005

By 

Peter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives (Paperback)

it's only out of print in hardback, the paperback is readily available - OUP ed.