Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes - Brossura

Sommerhoff, Gerd

 
9780761967750: Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes
Brossura
ISBN 10: 0761967753 ISBN 13: 9780761967750
Casa editrice: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2000

Sinossi

`This is surely the ultimate expression of the top-down approach to consciousness, written with Sommerhoff′s characteristic clarity and precision. It says far more than other books four times the size of this admirably concise volume. This book is destined to become a pillar of the subject′ -Rodney Cotterill, Technical University of Denmark

The problem of consciousness has been described as a mystery about which we are still in a terrible muddle and in Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes, the author unravels this mystery through a clarification of the main concepts related to consciousness, followed by a comprehensive biological explanation. Consequently, this book will be ideal for a wide-range of upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses. The author interprets consciousness as a property that can also be possessed by creatures lacking a language faculty and comprises all of the following: awareness of the surrounding world; awareness of the self as an entity; and awareness of such things as thoughts and feelings. He argues that a biological approach can achieve both the necessary conceptual clarifications and a joint explanation of these divisions of awareness in terms of just two accurately defined concepts of ′internal representation′ and two empirically supported assumptions about the functional architecture of a specific set of brain processes. Despite this striking simplicity, his model covers these divisions of awareness, both as objective faculties of the brain and as subjective experience. These conclusions are applied to a broad range of fundamental questions, including the biological rationale of subjective experience and where consciousness resides in the neural networks.

Le informazioni nella sezione "Riassunto" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.

Recensione

`This is surely the ultimate expression of the top-down approach to consciousness, written with Sommerhoff's characteristic clarity and precision. It says far more than other books four times the size of this admirably concise volume. This book is destined to become a pillar of the subject' - Rodney Cotterill, Technical University of Denmark

Contenuti

PART ONE: CONSCIOUSNESS EXPLAINED IN SIMPLE FUNCTIONAL TERMS
A Methodical Biological Approach and Its Conclusions
Awareness of the Surrounding World
Awareness of the Self as an Entity and of One's Thoughts and Feelings
A Closer Look at the Four Main Propositions
Questions and Answers
PART TWO: THE FABRIC OF THE UNDERLYING BRAIN PROCESSES
The RWM
Acquired Expectancies
Imaginative Representations
Where Does Consciousness Reside in the Brain?

Le informazioni nella sezione "Su questo libro" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.

Editore
SAGE Publications Ltd
Data di pubblicazione
2000
Lingua
Inglese
ISBN 10 
0761967753
ISBN 13 
9780761967750
Rilegatura
Copertina flessibile
Numero edizione
1
Numero di pagine
208
Contatto del produttore
non disponibile
Persona responsabile
non disponibile

Altre edizioni note dello stesso titolo

9780761967743: Understanding Consciousness: Its Function and Brain Processes

Edizione in evidenza

ISBN 10:  0761967745 ISBN 13:  9780761967743
Casa editrice: Sage Pubns Ltd, 2000
Rilegato