Philosophy, Neuroscience and Consciousness

"Welshon investigates consciousness and its relation to the brain, covering both philosophical and neuroscientific literature in great depth. This combination of philosophy with a detailed review and analysis of relevant neuroscience is very welcome. Several leading philosophers draw heavily on developments in neuroscience without providing ordinary readers with the background they need to understand those developments for themselves. This book provides both means and motivation for philosophers to incorporate significant knowledge of neuroscience into their reflections. A valuable contribution to the literature." Stephen Butterfill, University of Warwick

Explaining consciousness is one of the last great unanswered scientific and philosophical problems. Immediately known, familiar and obvious, consciousness is also baffling, opaque and strange. Rex Welshon introduces many of the current neuroscientific proposals about consciousness and discusses them from a philosophical point of view. Welshon's engagement with recent cognitive science and neurophysiology sets this book apart from other philosophical introductions. In his discussion, Welshon shows that although the advances made in the past twenty years in the scientific study of consciousness have been extraordinary, the philosophical and empirical difficulties researchers continue to face are huge. Indeed, for every promising empirical and philosophical theory of consciousness that Welshon examines, devastating empirical and philosophical objections are shown to exist. Simple and incontrovertible features of consciousness are shown to entail massive peculiarity, which the best scientific theories of consciousness need to respect.

Philosophy, Neuroscience and Consciousness will be welcomed by philosophers of mind looking for an introduction to recent scientific work on consciousness as well as by cognitive scientists keen to understand the philosophical implications of their research.