Overview

Full Product Details

9780907845232

Table of Contents

Reviews

Richard Cooper, THES Many contributions to consciousness debates have been ill informed or over subjective. This volume does not suffer from these deficiencies. Michael L. Anderson, Metapsychology Noe's book is a well-balanced set of essays. There seems to be genuine controversy between the various contributors. Paul Coates, Human Nature Review This book is essential reading for any theorist interested in perception.

This is a most impressive selection of essays on a central topic in cognitive science. Every essay has valuable points to make... This book is essential reading for any theorist interested in perception. -- Paul Coates Human Nature Review Many contributions to consciousness debates have been ill informed or over subjective. This volume does not suffer from these deficiencies. The common thread of change blindness ensures that all contributions are grounded in at least one empirically robust effect. There is no doubt that this grounding advances the quality of debate about the nature of visual experience. -- Richard Cooper Times Higher Education Supplement Noe's book is a well-balanced set of essays. There seems to be genuine controversy between the various contributors. -- Michael L. Anderson Metapsychology

It's a bold statement and one that invites debate. The title of this volume of essays refers to new developments in the field of perceptual consciousness that question our automatic assertion that what we see represents a full and complete picture of the world around us. A thought-provoking collection of academic propositions examine every conceivable aspect of this field of study, demonstrably proving - as the editor asserts in her stimulating introduction - that there are important implications here for various subjects, principally philosophy, psychology and consciousness studies. Although the essays are collated as the latest edition in the Journal of Consciousness Studies - and thus with a specifically erudite audience in mind - any interested reader who browses through will certainly find much here to stimulate them. 'What we see fully and richly represents exactly what is': essentially a simple premise that some academics staunchly maintain and others hotly refute. People normally express their perceptions of the visual world in terms of great intensity, yet in recent years this prevailing wisdom has come into contention within the developing field of consciousness studies. Demonstrating the notorious unreliability of our perceptive faculties - such as the eye's blind spot or our inability to register change unless we literally see it moving before our eyes - many argue that our complacent assumption about what we perceive is fundamentally inaccurate and requires revision. Each essay included here posits a particular question and then seeks to either assert culpability or refute criticism. In the intriguingly titled 'Tinkerbell Effect', for example, the susceptibility of consciousness to persuasion is demonstrated paralleling the collective efforts of the audience in reviving the dying fairy in JM Barrie's story Peter Pan. Using a variety of illustrative examples that help clarify many of the more finely detailed points, academics from the UK and US investigate the subject in exhaustive detail, deeply probing visual perception in an attempt to seek objective truths that will withstand rigorous scrutiny. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

Alva Noe is Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available