Book description
This book revises the traditional view of consciousness by claiming
that Cartesianism and Descartes' dualism of mind and body should be
replaced with theories from the realms of neuroscience, psychology and
artificial intelligence. What people think of as the stream of
consciousness is not a single, unified sequence, the author argues, but
"multiple drafts" of reality composed by a computer-like
"virtual machine". Dennett considers how consciousness could
have evolved in human beings and confronts the classic mysteries of
consciousness: the nature of introspection, the self or ego and its
relation to thoughts and sensations, and the level of consciousness of
non-human creatures. Daniel Dennett is the author of Brainstorms,
Brainchildren, Elbow Room, Consciousness Explained and Darwin's
Dangerous Idea. He is currently the Distinguished Arts and Sciences
Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts
University. He lives in North Andover, Massachusetts.
