Consciousness Studies

Consciousness studies embraces the neuroscience and philosophy of consciousness.

Introduction

 * /Introduction/
 * A note on Naive Realism
 * Intended audience and how to read this book

Part I: Historical review

 * /Early Ideas/
 * /Medieval Concepts/
 * /Seventeenth And Eighteenth Century Philosophy/
 * /Nineteenth To Twenty First Century Philosophy/

Part II: The problem of consciousness

 * What needs to be explained: the description and definition of phenomenal consciousness
 * The conflict - where, when and what?
 * The regression argument
 * The subject-object paradox
 * The homunculus argument
 * Phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness
 * Direct Realism
 * Indirect Realism
 * Dualism
 * Idealism
 * Panpsychism
 * Breaking down the philosophical and scientific problems
 * The philosophical problem of phenomenal consciousness
 * Epiphenomenalism and the problem of change
 * The problem of time
 * The problem of space
 * The problem of qualia
 * Elementary Information and Information Systems Theory
 * Classification, signs, sense, relations, supervenience etc.
 * Qualia and Information
 * Absent and fading qualia
 * Putnam's twin earth thought experiment
 * The Inverted Qualia Argument
 * The Knowledge Argument
 * The problem of machine and digital consciousness
 * Measurement in physics and the preferred basis problem

Part III: Neuroscience of consciousness

 * The neuroscience of consciousness
 * Introduction
 * The substrate of experience
 * Neuroanatomy
 * Topological mapping and cortical columns
 * The neurophysiology of sensation and perception
 * Vision
 * Depth perception
 * The cortex and thalamus
 * The cortex and consciousness
 * Perception, Imagination, Memory and Dreams
 * More about Models
 * Blindsight
 * The Role of the Thalamus
 * General Anaesthesia and the Thalamus
 * The function of consciousness
 * Perceptual "filling in"
 * Rivalries and synchronisation
 * Binocular Rivalry, Pattern Rivalry and Binocular Fusion
 * Synchronisation of Neural Processes
 * EEG and synchronisation
 * Event related potentials
 * The integration delay
 * Global Workspace Theory
 * The "cognitive map" and the neural basis of perceptual space
 * /Behaviourism And Consciousness/
 * /Models Of Access Consciousness/
 * Neural networks
 * Quantum information processing

Part IV: Explanations of Consciousness

 * Contemporary explanations of consciousness
 * The identity theory of mind
 * Scientific theories
 * Functionalism
 * Dualism
 * Intentionalism
 * Higher order thought
 * Eliminativism
 * Mysterianism
 * Idealism and panpsychism
 * Other explanations of consciousness
 * Consciousness-only
 * BioPsychoSociology Model 1 BPS Model

Appendices
Some physical science for consciousness studies:
 * Ontology of Newtonian physics: kinetic energy and magnetism
 * The origin of the metric tensor
 * Action, Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics
 * /Index/
 * /Notes for the Contributors/
 * /Contributors/

Études sur la conscience Sąmonė