Cogprints
Login | Create Account

Problems in the "functional" investigations of consciousness

Overgaard, Morten (2000) Problems in the "functional" investigations of consciousness. (Unpublished)

Full text available as:

[img]HTML
74Kb

Abstract

This article presents the view that the “problem of consciousness” – per definition – can not be seen as a strictly scientific or strictly philosophical problem. The first idea, especially, leads to important difficulties: First of all, the idea has in most cases implied some rather superficial reductionistic or functionalistic a priori assumptions, and, secondly, it can be shown that some of the most commonly used empirical methods in these regards are inadequate. Especially so in the case of contrastive analysis, widely used in cognitive neuroscience. However, this criticism does not lead to the conclusion that scientific methods are inadequate as such, only that they always work on a pre-established background of theory, of which one must be explicit.

Item Type:Other
Keywords:Consciousness; science; functionalism; contrastive analysis; scientific explanation; philosophical explanation; methodology
Subjects:Psychology > Cognitive Psychology
Philosophy > Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy > Philosophy of Science
ID Code:1982
Deposited By:Overgaard, Morten
Deposited On:14 Dec 2001
Last Modified:12 Sep 2007 17:42

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Baars, B. (1983): Conscious contents provide the nervous system with coherent, global information, in R. Davidson, G. Schwartz and D. Shapiro (eds.): Consciousness and Self-Regulation, vol. 3, Plenum Press

Baars, B. (1988): A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness, Cambridge University Press

Baars, B. (1997a): A thoroughly empirical approach to consciousness: Contrastive analysis, in N. Block, O. Flanagan and G. Guzeldere (eds.): The Nature of Consciousness, MIT Press

Baars, B. (1997b): In the theatre of consciousness, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 4, 4, 292-309

Chalmers, D.J. (1995a): Facing up to the problem of consciousness, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2, 200-219

Chalmers, D.J. (1995b): Absent qualia, fading qualia, dancing qualia, in: T. Metzinger (ed.): Conscious Experience, Schöningh

Chalmers, D.J. (1996): The Conscious Mind, Oxford University Press

Churchland, P.S. (1986): Neurophilosophy, MIT Press

Crick, F. (1994): The Astonishing Hypothesis, Simon & Schuster

Crick, F. and Koch, C. (1990): Towards a Neurobiological Theory of Consciousness, Seminars in the Neurosciences, 2, 263-275

Crick, F. and Koch, C. (1998): Consciousness and neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, 8, 97-107

Dennett, D.C. (1988): Quining qualia, in A. Marcel and E. Bisiach (eds.): Consciousness in Contemporary Science, Clarendon Press

Düzel, E., Yonelinas, A.P., Mangun, G.R., Heinze, H.J. and Tulving, E. (1997): Event-related brain potential correlates of two states of conscious awareness in memory, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 94, 5973-5978

Frith, C., Perry, R. and Lumer, E. (1999): The neural correlates of conscious experience: An experimental framework, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 3, 3, 105-114

Hardcastle, V.G. (1993): The naturalists versus the skeptics: The debate over a scientific understanding of consciousness, The Journal of Mind and Behavior, 14, 1, 27-50

Jackson, F. (1986): What Mary didn’t know, Journal of Philosophy, 83, 291-295

Kentridge, R.W., Heywood, C.A. and Weiskrantz, L. (1999): Attention without awareness in blindsight, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London - Series B, 266, 1805-1811

Libet, B. (1985): Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action, Brain & Behavioral Sciences, 8, 529-566

Miller, G.A. (1956): The magical number seven plus or minus two: Some limits in our capacity for processing information, Psychological Review, 63, 81-97

Praetorius, N. (2000): Principles of Cognition, Language & Action, Kluwer Academic Press

Roy, J.M., Petitot, J., Pachoud, B. & Varela, F.J. (2000): Beyond the gap: And introduction to naturalizing phenomenology, in: J. Petitot, F.J. Varela, B. Pachoud & J.M. Roy (eds.): Naturalizing Phenomenology, Stanford University Press

Searle, J.R. (1998): How to study consciousness scientifically, Brain Research Reviews, 26, 379-387

van Gulick, R. (1995): What would count as explaining consciousness?, in T. Metzinger (ed.): Conscious Experience, Schöningh

Varela, F.J. (1996): Neurophenomenology, Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, 4, 330-349

Velmans, M. (1991): Is human information processing conscious?, Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 14, 651-726

Wilkes, K. (1984): Is consciousness important? British Journal for Philosophy of Science, 35, 223-243

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.