โ Scribed by Fred I. Dretske
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
How can the baffling problems of phenomenal experience be accounted for? In this discourse Fred Dretske argues that to achieve an understanding of the mind it is not enough to understand the biological machinery by means of which the mind does its job. One must understand what the mind's job is and how this task can be performed by a physical system - the nervous system. "Naturalizing the Mind" skilfully a representational theory of the qualitative, the phenomenal, the what-it-is-like aspects of the mind that have defied traditional forms of naturalism. Central to Dretske's approach is the claim that the phenomenal aspects of perceptual experiences are one and the same as external, real world properties that experience represents objects as having. Combined with an evolutionary account of sensory representation, the result is a completely naturalistic account of phenomenal consciousness. Dretske's theory of naturalistic representationalism is an approach to the study of consciousness that can pin down the slippery first-person aspect of our sensory and affective life. It distinguishes, in wholly naturalistic terms, between what we experience (reality) and how we experience it (appearance). The theory establishes a framework within which subjectivity can be studied objectively, explains the peculiar authority we enjoy about our own mental states, and provides a biologically plausible answer to questions about the function or purpose of consciousness. In the first four chapters (the original Jean Nicod Lectures), Dretske focuses on what naturalistic representationalism reveals about introspective knowledge, intentionality, qualia, inverted spectra, the biological function of conscious experience, and the possibility of knowing what alien experiences are like. Chapter five addresses anticipated philosophical objections to the theory.
Naturalizing the Mind......Page 1
Contents......Page 4
Series Foreword......Page 5
Acknowledgments......Page 6
Prologue......Page 9
1 The Representational Character of Sense Experience......Page 13
1 The Nature of Representation......Page 14
2 Natural and Conventional Representations......Page 18
3 Representational Systems and Representational States......Page 20
4 Represented Properties and Represented Objects......Page 35
5 Intentionality......Page 40
6 Mind and Brain: The Whereabouts of Experience......Page 46
2 Introspection......Page 51
1 Displaced Perception......Page 53
2 Knowing Another's Mind......Page 56
3 Knowing One's Own Mind......Page 63
4 Knowledge without Experience......Page 70
3 Qualia......Page 76
1 French Poodles and French Wine......Page 77
2 Qualia as Represented Properties......Page 84
3 Points of View......Page 89
4 What Is It Like to Experience Electric Fields?......Page 92
5 What Is It Like to Be an Experiencer of Electric Fields?......Page 104
4 Consciousness......Page 107
1 Conscious Beings and Conscious States......Page 108
2 Higher-order Theories of State Consciousness......Page 114
3 The Function of Consciousness......Page 126
5 Externalism and Supervenience......Page 133
1 Seeming and Supervenience......Page 134
2 Replacement Arguments and Absent Qualia......Page 151
3 Explanatory Relevance......Page 161
4 Evolutionary Origins......Page 172
References......Page 179
C......Page 194
I......Page 195
R......Page 196
Z......Page 197
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