UID:
almahu_9949568572802882
Format:
1 online resource
ISBN:
9781000925661
,
1000925668
,
9781003411581
,
1003411584
,
9781000925708
,
1000925706
Content:
Explanatory Optimism about the Hard Problem of Consciousness argues that despite the worries of explanatory pessimists, consciousness can be fully explained in easy scientific terms. The widespread intuition that consciousness poses a hard problem is plausibly based on how consciousness appears to us in first-person access. The book offers a debunking argument to undercut the justificatory link between the first-person appearances and our hard problem intuitions. The key step in the debunking argument involves the development and defense of an empirical model of first-person access: Automated Compression Theory (ACT). ACT holds that first-person access to consciousness is accomplished by automated accessing of compressed sensory information. Because of the distorting nature of this compressed access, it seems to subjects that consciousness possesses exceptional properties--properties leading to the hard problem--even though no such properties are present. If there are no exceptional properties to explain, then an explanation in easy terms can fully account for conscious experience. The book presents a range of empirical evidence for ACT and concludes that the burden of proof is now on the pessimists to show why we shouldn't be optimistic about explaining consciousness.
Additional Edition:
Print version: ISBN 1032533439
Additional Edition:
ISBN 9781032533438
Language:
English
Keywords:
Electronic books.
DOI:
10.4324/9781003411581
URL:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003411581
Bookmarklink
