By Nicholas HUMPHREY
ISBN-10: 0674021797
ISBN-13: 9780674021792
ISBN-10: 0674030540
ISBN-13: 9780674030541
"Consciousness issues. Arguably it concerns greater than something. the aim of this booklet is to construct in the direction of a proof of simply what the problem is." Nicholas Humphrey starts off this compelling exploration of the most important of huge questions with a problem to the reader, and himself. what is fascinated by "seeing red"? what's it like for us to determine another person seeing anything crimson? Seeing a crimson monitor tells us a truth approximately anything on this planet. however it additionally creates a brand new fact--a sensation in every one of our minds, the sensation of redness. and that is the secret. traditional technological know-how thus far hasn't advised us what wide awake sensations are made up of, or how we get entry to them, or why we have now them in any respect. From an evolutionary standpoint, what is the element of cognizance? Humphrey bargains a bold and novel answer, arguing that sensations aren't issues that ensue to us, they're issues we do--originating in our primordial ancestors' expressions of liking or disgust. Tracing the evolutionary trajectory via to people, he exhibits how this has ended in sensations enjoying the most important position within the human feel of Self. The Self, as we now understand it from inside, turns out to have attention-grabbing other-worldly houses. It leads us to think in mind-body duality and the lifestyles of a soul. And such beliefs--even if mistaken--can be hugely adaptive, simply because they bring up the price we position on our personal and others' lives. "Consciousness matters," Humphrey concludes with notable paradox, "because it truly is its functionality to topic. it's been designed to create in humans a Self whose existence is worthy pursuing." (20060315)
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Extra info for Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness
Example text
Unknown to him, you might be color-blind, so that you see everything as black and white. Or you might have a rare condition called color agnosia, in which the color-classifying areas of your brain no longer function properly. However, this is something S should be able to check out relatively easily. All he need do is ask you. Since S’s perception of the screen’s color and your perception of the screen’s color do concern precisely the same impersonal fact, a, then unless there is indeed something wrong with you (or wrong with him), he and you will openly agree on it.
So, now, what attitudes if any will he have toward this perceived fact at an affective level? Will he mind about the color of things out there in the world? As we have already discussed, the answer is most likely no. This is not to say that the impersonal facts of color do not matter to anyone in any circumstances. But they certainly do not matter in the way colored sensations do. If I shut my eyes, I still have the perceptual knowledge that the screen is colored red, but I do not find the knowledge as such loud, hot, disturbing, exciting.
4 In the terms we have established in the previous chapter, when S smells a rose [Figure 4], • S gets to have an olfactory rosy sensation, s • S gets to feel his having of this rosy sensation, p(s) • S gets to perceive the rose has a rosy smell, p(r) The question is how these three things are connected. Reid himself proposed a simple answer: namely, that sensation provides the 40 aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaa 4 evidence on which perception is based.
Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness by Nicholas HUMPHREY
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