Raw Feeling: A Philosophical Account of the Essence of Consciousness

Kiek, Robert; Kirk, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198240813 ISBN 13: 9780198240815

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1994

Consciousness is a perennial source of mystification in the philosophy of mind: how can processes in the brain amount to conscious experiences? Robert Kirk uses the notion of `raw feeling' to bridge the intelligibility gap between our knowledge of ourselves as physical organisms and our knowledge of ourselves as subjects of experience; he argues that there is no need for recourse to dualism or private mental objects. The task is to understand how the truth about raw feeling could be strictly implied by narrowly physical truths. Kirk's explanation turns on an account of what it is to be a subject of conscious perceptual experience. He offers penetrating analyses of the problems of consciousness and suggests novel solutions which, unlike their rivals, can be accepted without gritting one's teeth. His sustained defence of non-reductive physicalism shows that we need not abandon hope of finding a solution to the mind-body problem.

Review:

Much of Raw Feeling is technical in character and impossible to do justice to in a brief review. (The Times Literary Supplement)

About the Author:

Robert Kirk is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham.