
Consciousness and Cognition : A Unified Account.
Title:
Consciousness and Cognition : A Unified Account.
Author:
Thau, Michael.
ISBN:
9780195349658
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (295 pages)
Series:
Philosophy of Mind
Contents:
Contents -- Introduction -- 1 SPECTRUM INVERSION -- 0. Introduction -- 1. Two views on perception -- 2. Spectrum inversion and functionalism -- 3. Spectrum inversion sans functionalism -- 4. The irrelevance of behavioral undetectability: Extending the argument -- 5. Qualia and Fregean senses -- 6. Phenomenology and representational content -- 7. An alternative view of perception -- 8. Generalized use-mention confusion -- 9. Pain and other sensations -- 10. Shoemaker's view -- 11. Conclusion -- 2 THE STRUCTURE OF BELIEF AND PERCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION -- 0. Introduction -- 1. Intentionality and paradox -- 2. Intentionality and sense-data theory -- 3. The link to truth and falsity -- 4. The relational nature of belief -- 5. Instantial states vs. internal states -- 6. Against internal belief states -- 7. The possible worlds account of propositions -- 8. Saying and believing -- 9. Perceptual representation -- 10. Perception and the particularizing fallacy -- 11. Intentionality revisited -- 12. The Fregean/Millian distinction and the what/how distinction -- 13. Descriptive Fregeanism and non-descriptive Fregeanism -- 14. Guise Millianism and pure Millianism -- 15. Singular propositions -- 16. Explaining the what/how distinction -- 17. Conclusion -- 3 FREGE'S PUZZLE -- 0. Introduction -- 1. Four ways of generating Frege's puzzle -- 2. The way that appeals to reasons for behavior -- 3. Two ways the triadist can explain the differences in information conveyed: Differences-in-the-how and differences-about-the-how -- 4. Representational content, qualia, and non-descriptive modes of presentation -- 5. Against differences-about-the-how -- 6. Against differences-in-the-how -- 7. Two false assumptions -- 8. Conclusion -- 4 THE STRUCTURE OF LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION -- 0. Introduction -- 1. What's implicated and what's said.
2. The philosophical importance of implicature -- 3. The Gricean paradox and two ways of generating it -- 4. The accessibility of Gricean inferences -- 5. The underdetermination of the inferences -- 6. Dispensing with the inferences -- 7. Semantic value as a theoretical entity -- 8. The opacity of semantic value -- 9. Trivial but informative sentences -- 10. True identity statements, belief ascriptions containing true identity statements, etc. -- 11. A kind of conventional implicature -- 12. Conclusion -- 5 BLACK-AND-WHITE MARY -- 0. Introduction -- 1. A first pass at the argument -- 2. A response to the argument -- 3. A qualification: Conveying vs. registering -- 4. Reformulating the argument -- 5. First response: Mary gains only non-propositional knowledge -- 6. The relation between Mary's new propositional and non-propositional knowledge -- 7. Seeing objects vs. seeing properties -- 8. Second response: Mary learns about red' -- 9. Third response: Mary lacks the concept red -- 10. Toward the heart of the argument: Dumbing Mary down -- 11. Toward the heart of the argument: Setting Mary free -- 12. At the heart of the argument -- 13. Why we can't name the properties represented in perception -- 14. Looking some color -- 15. The intuition that colors are represented in perception -- 16. Perceptual representation and dispositionalism about color -- 17. Conclusion -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- P -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Z.
Abstract:
Our thinking about consciousness and cognition is dominated by a certain very natural conception. This conception dictates what we take the fundamental questions about consciousness and cognition to be as well as the form that their answers must take. In this book, Michael Thau shows that, despite its naturalness, this conception begins with and depends upon a few fundamental errors. Exorcising these errors requires that we completely reconceive the nature of both consciousness and cognition as well as the fundamental problems each poses. Thau proceeds by discussing three famous and important philosophical puzzles - Spectrum Inversion, Frege's Puzzle, and Black-and-White Mary - each of which concerns some aspect of either consciousness or cognition. It has gone unnoticed that at a certain important level of generality, each of these puzzles presents the very same problem and, in bringing out this common problem, the errors in our natural conception of consciousness and cognition are also brought out. Thau's book will appeal to the casual reader interested in the proper solution of these puzzles and the nature of consciousness and cognition. The discussion of Frege's puzzle also contains important insights about the nature of linguistic communication and, hence, anyone interested in the fundamental questions in philosophy of language will also want to read the book.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
Genre:
Electronic Access:
Click to View