Consciousness as a Scientific Concept A Philosophy of Science Perspe
The source of endless speculation and public curiosity, our scientific quest for the origins of human consciousness has expanded along with the technical capabilities of science itself and remains one of the key topics able to fire public as much as acade
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Studies in Brain and Mind VOLUME 5 Editor-in-Chief Gualtiero Piccinini, University of Missouri - St. Louis, U.S.A. Editorial Board Berit Brogaard, University of Missouri - St. Louis, U.S.A. Carl Craver, Washington University, U.S.A. Edouard Machery, University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A. Oron Shagrir, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel Mark Sprevak, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6540
Elizabeth Irvine
Consciousness as a Scientific Concept A Philosophy of Science Perspective
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Elizabeth Irvine Centre for Integrative Neuroscience University of Tuebingen Germany
ISBN 978-94-007-5172-9 ISBN 978-94-007-5173-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-5173-6 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2012944703 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
In this book, I argue for an eliminativist stance towards the concept of consciousness as it is used in scientific research. Given the recent rise of consciousness science, and the associated rise in philosophical engagement with this field of research, this is clearly a controversial stance to try to defend. However, while some colleagues have viewed my claims as fundamentally misguided, others have viewed them as entirely sensible and rather unsurprising. A lot seems to depend on the background assumptions that are brought to the table. Therefore, while I do not count on converting many from the first camp, I hope that the material presented here at least points to methodological problems in consciousness science that deserve more attention. I also hope that it spurs more use of philosophy of science in consciousness studies, as I think it mas much to offer current debates. The approaches taken in different parts of this book stem from different academic influences, and while I do not claim to have convinced those who have inspired the methods used here, I am grateful to them for their support and discussions. Much of the first part of the book about measures of consciousness comes from discussions with Michael Snodgrass, who introduced me to the wonderful world of Signal Detection Theory. The mechanistic approach developed from time spent at the University of Pittsburgh as a graduate student. Discussions about property clusters, scientific kinds, and related eliminativist claims with the late Barbara Scholz influenced many different sections of the book. I have also had many enlightening discussions about scientific eliminativism with Aaron Sloman. The fram
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