
Consciousness Evolving
James H. Fetzer(Editor)
John Benjamins Publishing Co
Published on 8. April 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
253 pages
978-90-272-5154-1 (ISBN)
Description
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)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 150 mm
Weight
430 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-272-5154-1 (9789027251541)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

James H. Fetzer
Consciousness Evolving
E-Book
04/2002
1st Edition
John Benjamins Publishing Company
€87.49
Available for download
Person
Content
1. Contributors; 2. Introduction; 3. Prologue; 4. Turing indistinguishability and the blind watchmaker (by Harnad, Stevan); 5. Part I: Natural consciousness; 6. Consciousness, adaptation and epiphenomenalism (by Polger, Thomas W.); 7. The functions of consciousness (by Cole, David); 8. Sensations and grain processes (by Graham, George); 9. Part II: Special adaptations; 10. Evolution, consciousness, and the language of thought (by Garson, James W.); 11. Why did evolution engineer consciousness? (by Bringsjord, Selmer); 12. Nothing without mind (by Clark, Stephen); 13. Part III: Artificial consciousness; 14. The emergence of grounded representations: The power and limits of sensory-motor coordination (by Nolfi, Stefano); 15. Ago Ergo Sum (by Floreano, Dario); 16. Evolving robot consciousness: The easy problems and the rest (by Harvey, Inman); 17. Epilogue; 18. The future with cloning: On the possibility of serial immortality (by Tennant, Neil); 19. Subject index; 20. Name index