Consciousness avoided
Inquiry 36 (1 & 2):73 – 91 (1993)
| Abstract | In Consciousness Explained, Dennett systematically deconstructs the notion of consciousness, emptying it of its central and essential features. He fails to recognize the self?intimating nature of experience, in effect reducing experiences to reports or judgments that so?and?so is the case. His information?processing model of meaning is unable to account for semantics, the way in which speakers and hearers relate strings of symbols to the world. This ability derives ultimately from our animal nature as experiencers, though culturally supplemented in various ways. But Dennett, while successful in rebutting Cartesianism about the mind, fails to take into account our natural history. He claims descent from Wittgenstein in his philosophy of mind, but he shows awareness only of Wittgensteinian's demolition of the private object of experience and overlooks the equally Wittgensteinian theme of humans as products of nature | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesDaniel D. Hutto (1995). Consciousness Demystified: A Wittgensteinian Critique of Dennett. The Monist 78 (4):464-79.
William E. Seager (1993). Verification, Skepticism, and Consciousness. Inquiry 36 (1-2):113-133.
Michael V. Antony (2002). Toward an Ontological Interpretation of Dennett's Theory of Consciousness. Philosophia 29 (1-4):343-370.
Antti Revonsuo (1993). Is There a Ghost in the Cognitive Machinery? Philosophical Psychology 6 (4):387-405.
Barry F. Dainton (2000). Stream of Consciousness: Unity and Continuity in Conscious Experience. Routledge.
Gregg H. Rosenberg (2004). A Place for Consciousness: Probing the Deep Structure of the Natural World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robert W. Lurz (1999). Animal Consciousness. Journal of Philosophical Research 24 (January):149-168.
Mark Rowlands (2001). The Nature of Consciousness. Cambridge University Press.
Michael Lockwood (1993). Dennett's Mind. Inquiry 36 (1-2):59-72.
Susan Schneider (2007). Daniel Dennett on the Nature of Consciousness. In Max Velmans & Susan Schneider (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. Blackwell.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads7 ( #133,532 of 549,113 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,390 of 549,113 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
