The unimagined preposterousness of zombies
Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):322-26 (1995)
| Abstract | Knock-down refutations are rare in philosophy, and unambiguous self-refutations are even rarer, for obvious reasons, but sometimes we get lucky. Sometimes philosophers clutch an insupportable hypothesis to their bosoms and run headlong over the cliff edge. Then, like cartoon characters, they hang there in mid-air, until they notice what they have done and gravity takes over. Just such a boon is the philosophers' concept of a zombie, a strangely attractive notion that sums up, in one leaden lump, almost everything that I think is wrong with current thinking about consciousness. Philosophers ought to have dropped the zombie like a hot potato, but since they persist in their embrace, this gives me a golden opportunity to focus attention on the most seductive error in current thinking | |||||||||
| Keywords | Consciousness Metaphysics Science Zombie Flanagan, O Moody, T Polger, T | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesDavid Robb (2008). Zombies From Below. In Simone Gozzano Francesco Orilia (ed.), Tropes, Universals, and the Philosophy of Mind: Essays at the Boundary of Ontology and Philosophical Psychology. Ontos Verlag.
Selmer Bringsjord (1995). In Defense of Impenetrable Zombies. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):348-351.
Robert Kirk (ed.) (2006/2007). Zombies and Consciousness. Oxford University Press.
Todd C. Moody (1995). Why Zombies Won't Stay Dead. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):365-372.
Mary Midgley (1995). Zombies and the Turing Test. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):351-352.
Todd C. Moody (1994). Conversations with Zombies. Journal of Consciousness Studies 1 (2):196-200.
John McCarthy (1995). Todd Moody's Zombies. Journal Of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):345-347.
Owen J. Flanagan & Thomas W. Polger (1995). Zombies and the Function of Consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (4):313-21.
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