Consciousness and perceptual experience : an ecological and phenomenological approach / Thomas Natsoulas.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Natsoulas, Thomas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consciousness.

Perception.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 463 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Consciousness & Perceptual Experience

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book describes and proposes an unusual integrative approach to human perception that qualifies as both an ecological and a phenomenological approach at the same time. Thomas Natsoulas shows us how our consciousness - in three of six senses of the word that the book identifies - is involved in our activity of perceiving the one and only world that exists, which includes oneself as a proper part of it, and that all of us share together with the rest of life on earth. He makes the case that our stream of consciousness - in the original Jamesian sense minus his mental/physical dualism - provides us with firsthand contact with the world, as opposed to our having such contact instead with theorist-posited items such as inner mental representations, internal pictures, or sense-image models, pure figments and virtual objects, none of which can have effects on our sensory receptors.

Contents:

Introduction: concepts of consciousness

Skepticism regarding consciousness

The normal waking state

Contact with the world

Environment

The life-world

Perceptual content

Experiential presence

Viewing

Inner awareness

Conclusion: against virtual objects

References.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-27232-7

1-139-89034-4

1-107-27175-4

1-107-56253-8

1-107-27507-5

1-107-27384-6

0-511-79040-6

1-107-27833-3

1-107-27710-8

OCLC:

854975204