Understanding Phenomenal Consciousness

This book presents a dualistic view of the mind that goes against the dominant materialist views.

William S. Robinson (Author)

9780521122719, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 November 2009

280 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.42 kg

Review of the hardback: 'Robinson's book is a highly impressive and forceful defense of a radical position in the philosophy of consciousness: ephiphenomenalistic dualism … The clarity of the argumentation is outstanding … The writing is lively and fresh; the background desire to advance a novel account of consciousness lends a certain 'newness' to even well trodden philosophical paths. The book is packed with careful, interesting and intriguing arguments.' William Seager, University of Toronto

William S. Robinson has for many years written insightfully about the mind-body problem. In Understanding Phenomenal Consciousness he focuses on sensory experience (e.g., pain, afterimages) and perception qualities such as colours, sounds and odours to present a dualistic view of the mind, called Qualitative Event Realism, that goes against the dominant materialist views. This theory is relevant to the development of a science of consciousness which is now being pursued not only by philosophers but by researchers in psychology and the brain sciences. This provocative book will interest students and professionals who work in the philosophy of mind and will also have cross-disciplinary appeal in cognitive psychology and the brain sciences.

Part I: 1. Introduction
2. Qualitative event realism
3. Dualism
4. Representationalism
5. Transparency
6. Higher order theories
7. Monitoring
8. Functionalism
9. Scepticism and the causes of qualitative events
10. Epiphenomenalism
Part II: 11. Unified dualism
12. Patterns as causes of qualitative events
13. A possible future.

Subject Areas: States of consciousness [JMT], Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Philosophy of mind [HPM], Analytical philosophy & Logical Positivism [HPCF5]