Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett

Penguin Adult, Jun 24, 1993 - Philosophy - 511 pages

This book revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming that Cartesianism and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and artificial intelligence. What people think of as the stream of consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but "multiple drafts" of reality composed by a computer-like "virtual machine". Dennett considers how consciousness could have evolved in human beings and confronts the classic mysteries of consciousness: the nature of introspection, the self or ego and its relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of non-human creatures.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - haig51 - LibraryThing

Daniel Dennett's eliminative materialism tries to cut through the hard problem of consciousness by completely removing the concept of qualia as a wrongheaded folk psychological epiphenomenon and ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - Carl_Hayes - LibraryThing

It's rough when you get to page 433 of a long, often tedious slog (detailed examinations of dozens of very specific experiments) and the author says "My explanation of consciousness is far from ...

About the author

Daniel Dennett is the author of Brainstorms, Brainchildren, Elbow Room, Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea. He is currently the Distinguished Arts and Sciences Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. He lives in North Andover, Massachusetts.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Consciousness Explained; Penguin books; Penguin science; Penguin science/philosphy
• Author: Daniel C. Dennett
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: Penguin Adult, 1993
• ISBN: 0140128670, 9780140128673
• Length: 511 pages
• Subjects: Philosophy / Mind & Body; Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition