|
 Building
a home philosophy library
Lyn
May and Steve Deery
The
sixteenth in a series of articles advising on how to build your
own home philosophy library.
No.
17 Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained
Seductive
though Ryle's prose may be (see ), many have felt dissatisfied with
the overall position he took towards consciousness. In fact some
have claimed Ryle's theory means there needn't be consciousness
at all.
Daniel
Dennett's Consciousness Explained can be seen as an attempt
to address some of the issues left outstanding by Ryle. Dennett
believes there are two key features in providing a satisfactory
account of consciousness. Research in cognitive science has to be
accounted for; and the status of introspective awareness and consciousness
needs to be systematically re-examined.
Dennett
is no armchair philosopher and is well aware of research being carried
out in other disciplines. This is one of the strengths of Consciousness
Explained, as conceptual analysis and thought experiments are
grounded by our increasing knowledge of how the mind works. In the
philosophy of mind it is easy to lose the plot and the will to live,
but Dennett always strives for clarity and most of the time he succeeds.
Many
of our most entrenched and ill-founded views of consciousness are
illustrated, says Dennett, by our attitude towards 'qualia' - the
'what it is like' of experience. This issue tends to focus on a
few thought experiments. Dennett argues, convincingly, that by changing
a few details in thought experiments our intuitions can be pushed
in other directions. He coined the phrase 'intuition pump' and this
is a wonderful reminder of the limitations of this approach.
Having
cleared the conceptual ground Dennett then proposes a new theory
of consciousness, based on emprical evidence. This is the multiple
drafts view of consciousness, which holds that there is no central,
internal, observer but rather just a stream of 'editorial revisions'.
Consciousness
Explained by Daniel C Dennett (Penguin) £7.99/$13.50
A
new book will be featured late-May 2002.
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