Does Consciousness Cause Behavior? - Hardcover

Pockett, Susan; Banks, Wlliam P; Gallagher, Shaun

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262162377 ISBN 13: 9780262162371

Publisher: MIT Press, 2006

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Review:

"Overall, this is an excellent volume that brings together an impressive cast of commentators on the key question for consciousness studies: does the c word actually do anything." Jonjoe McFadden Journal of Consciousness Studies

Overall, this is an excellent volume that brings together an impressive cast of commentators on the key question for consciousness studies: does the c word actually do anything.--Jonjoe McFadden "Journal of Consciousness Studies "

Synopsis:

Leading scholars continue the debate over whether consciousness causes behaviour or plays no functional role in it, discussing the question in terms of neuroscience, philosophy, law, and public policy. Our intuition tells us that we, our conscious selves, cause our own voluntary acts. Yet, scientists have long questioned this; Thomas Huxley, for example, in 1874 compared mental events to a steam whistle that contributes nothing to the work of a locomotive. New experimental evidence (most notably, work by Benjamin Libet and Daniel Wegner) has brought the causal status of our behaviour to the forefront of intellectual discussion again. This multidisciplinary collection continues and advances the debate by approaching the question from a variety of perspectives. The contributors begin by examining recent research in neuroscience that suggests that consciousness does not cause behaviour, offering first the outline of an empirically based model that shows how the brain causes behaviour and where consciousness might fit in.

Other writers address the philosophical presuppositions that may have informed the empirical studies, raising questions about what can be legitimately concluded about the existence of free will from Libet's and Wegner's experimental results. Finally, contributors examine the effect recent psychological and neuroscientific research could have on legal, social, and moral judgments of responsibility and blame - including a Clockwork Orange-like scenario of behaviour correction.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0262162377
• ISBN 13: 9780262162371
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384