Why Red Doesn't Sound Like a Bell (Hardcover)

J. Kevin O'Regan

ISBN 10: 0199775222 / ISBN 13: 9780199775224

Editore: Oxford University Press Inc, New York, 2011

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Hardcover. This book proposes a novel view to explain how we as humans -- contrary to current robots -- can have the impression of consciously feeling things: for example the red of a sunset, the smell of a rose, the sound of a symphony, or a pain.The book starts off by looking at visual perception. Our ability to see turns out to be much more mysterious than one might think. The eye contains many defects which should seriously interfere with vision. Yetwe have the impression of seeing the world in glorious panavision and technicolor. Explaining how this can be the case leads to a new idea about what seeing really is. Seeing is not passively receivinginformation in the brain, but rather a way of interacting with the world. The role of the brain is not to create visual sensation, but to enable the necessary interactions with the world.This new approach to seeing is extended in the second part of the book to encompass the other senses: hearing, touch, taste and smell. Taking sensory experiences to be modes of interacting with the world explains why these experiences are different in the way they are. It also explains whythoughts or automatic functions in the body, and indeed the vast majority brain functions, are not accompanied by any real feeling.The "sensorimotor" approach is not simply aphilosophical argument: It leads to scientifically verifiable predictions and new research directions. Among these are the phenomena of change blindness, sensory substitution, "looked but failed to see", as well as results on color naming and color perception and the localisation of touch on the body. The approach is relevant to the question of what animals and babies can feel, and to understanding what will be necessary for robots to become conscious. The book starts by analyzing the problem of how we can see so well despite what, to an engineer, might seem like horrendous defects of our eyes. An explanation is provided by a new way of thinking about seeing, the "sensorimotor" approach. In the second part of the book the sensorimotor approach is extended to all sensory experience. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Codice articolo 9780199775224

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Titolo: Why Red Doesn't Sound Like a Bell (Hardcover)

Casa editrice: Oxford University Press Inc, New York

Data di pubblicazione: 2011

Legatura: Hardcover

Condizione: new

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto:

This book proposes a novel view to explain how we as humans ― contrary to current robots ― can have the impression of consciously feeling things: for example the red of a sunset, the smell of a rose, the sound of a symphony, or a pain.

The book starts off by looking at visual perception. Our ability to see turns out to be much more mysterious than one might think. The eye contains many defects which should seriously interfere with vision. Yet we have the impression of seeing the world in glorious panavision and technicolor. Explaining how this can be the case leads to a new idea about what seeing really is. Seeing is not passively receiving information in the brain, but rather a way of interacting with the world. The role of the brain is not to create visual sensation, but to enable the necessary interactions with the world.

This new approach to seeing is extended in the second part of the book to encompass the other senses: hearing, touch, taste and smell. Taking sensory experiences to be modes of interacting with the world explains why these experiences are different in the way they are. It also explains why thoughts or automatic functions in the body, and indeed the vast majority brain functions, are not accompanied by any real feeling.

The "sensorimotor" approach is not simply a philosophical argument: It leads to scientifically verifiable predictions and new research directions. Among these are the phenomena of change blindness, sensory substitution, "looked but failed to see", as well as results on color naming and color perception and the localisation of touch on the body.

The approach is relevant to the question of what animals and babies can feel, and to understanding what will be necessary for robots to become conscious.

Recensione:

For readers of Perception, O'Regan's Why Red Doesn't Sound Like a Bell provides for a well-argued criticism of and a strong alternative to deterministic perspectives on perception and its role in consciousness. (Perception)