Consciousness evolving / edited by James H. Fetzer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fetzer, James H., 1940-

Series:

Advances in consciousness research ; v. 34.

Advances in consciousness research, 1381-589X ; v. 34

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consciousness.

Evolution.

Consciousness--Physiological aspects.

Evolution (Biology).

Physical Description:

xix, 251 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia, Pa. : John Benjamins Pub., c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A collection of stimulating studies on the past, the present, and the future of consciousness, Consciousness Evolving contributes to understanding some of the most important conceptual problems of our time. The advent of the modern synthesis together with the human genome project affords a platform for considering what it is that makes humans distinctive. Beginning with an essay that accents the nature of the problem within a behavioristic framework and concluding with reflections on the prospects for a form of immortality through serial cloning, the chapters are divided into three sections, which concern how and why consciousness may have evolved, special capacities involving language, creativity, and mentality as candidates for evolved adaptations, and the prospects for artificial evolution though the design of robots with specific forms of consciousness and mind. This volume should appeal to every reader who wants to better understand the human species, including its distinctive properties and its place in nature. (Series A).

Contents:

Consciousness Evolving

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

To Greg Mulhauser

Contents

Contributors

Introduction

Prologue

Turing indistinguishability and the blind watchmaker

Part 1: Natural consciousness

Consciousness, adaptation and epiphenomenalism

The functions of consciousness

Sensations and grain processes

Part 2: Special adaptations

Evolution, consciousness and the language of thought

Why did evolution engineer consciousness?

Nothing without mind

Part 3: Artificial consciousness

Studying the emergence of grounded representations

Ago Ergo Sum

Evolving robot consciousness

Epilogue

The future with cloning

Subject index

Name index

Advances In Consciousness Research.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612254888

9781282254886

128225488X

9780585461243

0585461244

9789027297907

9027297908

OCLC:

705531043