Consciousness and the Origins of Thought

This book offers a comprehensive and broadly rationalist theory of the mind.

Norton Nelkin (Author)

9780521564090, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 October 1996

360 pages
23.4 x 14.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.548 kg

"...thoughtful, rich, and extremely ambitious ..." Janet Levin, The Philosophical Review

This book offers a comprehensive and broadly rationalist theory of the mind which continually tests itself against experimental results and clinical data. Taking issue with Empiricists who believe that all knowledge arises from experience and that perception is a non-cognitive state, Norton Nelkin argues that perception is cognitive, constructive and proposition-like. Further, as against Externalists who believe that our thoughts have meaning only insofar as they advert to the world outside our minds, he argues that meaning is determined 'in the head'. Finally, he offers an account of how we acquire some of our most basic concepts, including the concept of the self and that of other minds.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. Phenomena: 1. The senses
2. Phenomena
3. Pains
4. Phenomena reconsidered
Part II. Consciousness: 5. Consciousness: preliminaries
6. Consciousness: a theory
7. Consciousness: an appendix
Part III. Apperception: 8. Apperception
9. Selves
10. Things
11. Will
Concluding remarks
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of mind [HPM]