Consciousness is an intriguing mystery, of which standard accounts all have well-known difficulties. This book examines the central question about consciousness: that is, the question of how phenomenal features of our experience are related to physical features of our nervous system. Using the way in which we experience color as a central case, it develops a novel account of how consciousness is constituted by our neural structure, and so presents a new physicalist and internalist solution to the hard problem of phenomenal consciousness, with respect specifically to sensory qualia. The necessary background in philosophy and sensory neurophysiology is provided for the reader throughout. The book will appeal to a range of readers interested in the problems of consciousness.
Consciousness is an intriguing mystery, of which standard accounts all have well-known difficulties. This book develops a novel account of how consciousness is constituted by our neural structure that avoids these difficulties.
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A novel physicalist solution of the hard problem of consciousness, rooted in neural structure.
1. Introduction;
2. Neuralia on earth;
3. The whole nervous system model;
4. The modal structure of color qualia;
5. Some other senses;
6. Visual space;
7. Time, cause, and particularity;
8. Summary and objection; Bibliography; Index.
Joseph Mendola is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His previous books include Goodness and Justice (Cambridge, 2006), Human Interests (2014), and Experience and Possibility (2021).
