Neuroscience

The Sentient Robot

The Last Two Hurdles in the Race to Build Artificial Superintelligence
Rupert Robson

Rupert Robson argues that we are now just two conceptual hurdles away from developing artificial superintelligence. The first of the two hurdles is to embed consciousness in AI, thereby giving us the sentient robot. The second is about the developmental step needed in AI design so as to achieve human-level flexibility in thought.

Metapsychology of the Creative Process

Continuous Novelty as the Ground of Creative Advance
Jason W. Brown

This book discusses a process (microgenetic) theory of the mental state of creativity that differs markedly from mainstream (cognitive) psychology, but with the potential to clarify many features of thought and imagery, normal and exceptional. Creativity is not an isolated problem but touches many central issues in philosophical psychology.

In Their Right Minds

The Lives and Shared Practices of Poetic Geniuses
Carole Brooks Platt

Based on nearly twenty years of scientific and literary research, this book enters the atypical minds of poetic geniuses — Blake, Keats, Hugo, Rilke, Yeats, Merrill, Plath and Hughes — by way of the visible signs in their lives, beliefs, and shared practices.

Microgenetic Theory and Process Thought

Jason W. Brown

The chapters in this volume attempt to establish some foundational principles of a theory of the mind/brain grounded in evolutionary and process theory.

Mechanisms in World and Mind

Perspective Dualism, Systems Theory, Neuroscience, Reductive Physicalism
Bernd Lindemann

This book is about philosophical aspects of neuroscience, centred on perspective dualism.

The Implications of Embodiment

Cognition and Communication
Wolfgang Tschacher

This edited volume is scientifically based, but readable for a larger audience, covering the concept of "embodied cognition" and its implications from a transdisciplinary angle.

Ten Years' Viewing from Within: Further Debate

Claire Petitmengin

This special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies is the sequel to Ten Years of Viewing from Within, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the publication of The View from Within, where Francisco Varela in collaboration with Jonathan Shear designed the foundations of a research program on lived experience.

Who Was Mrs Willett?

Landscapes and Dynamics of Mind
Chris Nunn

Here is an account of mentality and human experience, written for a multi-disciplinary readership. The focus is on how mind, consciousness and selves inter-relate, extending into exploration of ideas about the nature of awareness and a search for relevant evidence.

The Victorian's Guide to Consciousness

Essays Marking the Centenary of William James
Allan Combs

A special issue of the Journal of Consciousness Studies to mark the centenary of the death of the pioneer psychologist William James.

Evolving Ethics

The New Science of Good and Evil
Steven Mascaro

This book describes the application of Artificial Life simulation to evolutionary scenarios of wide ethical interest, including the evolution of altruism, rape and abortion, providing a new meaning to "experimental philosophy".

Mindworlds

A Decade of Consciousness Studies
J. Andrew Ross

Understanding consciousness is one of the central scientific challenges of our time. This book presents Andy Ross's recent work and discusses a range of perspectives on the core issues.

Ten Years of Viewing from Within

The Legacy of Francisco Varela
Claire Petitmengin

Ten years on from The View From Within, Claire Petitmengin has organized a collection of essays that examine and refine the research program on first-person methods defined in The View from Within, with contributions based on empirical research.

Brainstorming

Views and Interviews on the Mind
Shaun Gallagher

Shaun Gallagher is a philosopher of mind who has made it his business to study and meet with leading neuroscientists, including Michael Gazzaniga, Marc Jeannerod and Chris Frith. The result is this unique introduction to the study of the mind, with topics ranging over consciousness, emotion, language, movement, free will and moral responsibility.

World in My Mind, My Mind in the World

Key Mechanisms of Consciousness in People, Animals and Machines
Igor Aleksander

Not consciousness, but knowledge of consciousness: that is what this book communicates in a fascinating way.

How Many People are There in My Head? And in Hers?

An Exploration of Single Cell Consciousness
Jonathan C.W. Edwards

This book makes the proposal that the only possible solution to the 'mind-brain' problem is that each nerve cell is conscious separately and that we have no other 'global' consciousness.

Why the Mind is Not a Computer

A Pocket Lexicon of Neuromythology
Raymond Tallis

The equation "Mind = Machine" is false. This pocket lexicon of "neuromythology" shows why.

Trusting the Subject?

Volume Two
Anthony Jack

This work is designed to encourage cognitive scientists to take more account of the subject's unique perspective.

Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality

David Lorimer

The Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality project was set up with the support of the John Templeton Foundation in order to examine critical issues at the interface between science, religion and the field of 'consciousness studies'.

Trusting the Subject?

Volume One
Anthony Jack

This work is designed to encourage cognitive scientists to take more account of the subject's unique perspective.

Machine Consciousness

Owen Holland

Can a machine really be conscious? Can it have feelings? Well, even the humble thermostat knows when it gets too hot — and it can do something about it too. But can a machine think thoughts? Does it have a personality? How would you know?

Structure of Thinking

A Process-oriented Account of Mind
Laura E. Weed

This book presents an alternative, naturalistic view of human thinking, arguing that computers are merely sophisticated machines.

Is the Visual World a Grand Illusion?

Alva Noe

There is a traditional scepticism about whether the world "out there" really is as we perceive it. A new breed of hyper-sceptics now challenges whether we even have the perceptual experience we think we have. The writings collected in this volume explore the implications of this scepticism.

Emergence of Consciousness

Anthony Freeman

How does the conscious mind relate to the physical body? In The Emergence of Consciousness philosopher Robert Van Gulick gives a clear and masterly overview and comparison of the current 'emergent' and ‘reductive’ approaches. Other contributors discuss more detailed aspects of the subject.

Cognitive Models and Spiritual Maps

Interdisciplinary Explorations of Religious Experience
Jensine Andresen

This book throws down a challenge to religious studies, offering a multidisciplinary approach - including developmental psychology, neuropsychology, philosophy of mind, and anthropology.

Volitional Brain

Towards a Neuroscience of Freewill
Benjamin Libet

The puzzling status of volition is explored in this issue by a distinguished body of scientists and philosophers.

Models of the Self

Shaun Gallagher

A comprehensive reader on the problem of the self as seen from the perspectives of philosophy, development psychology, robotics, cognitive neuroscience, psychopathology, semiotics, phenomenology and contemplative studies, all focused on a keynote paper.

View from Within

First-person Approaches to the Study of Consciousness
Francisco J Varela

Drawing on a wide range of approaches — from phenomenology to meditation — THE VIEW FROM WITHIN examines the possibility of a disciplined approach to the study of subjective states. The focus is on the practical issues involved.

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