Consciousness Evolving
Editor
A collection of stimulating studies on the past, the present, and the future of consciousness, Consciousness Evolving contributes to understanding some of the most important conceptual problems of our time. The advent of the modern synthesis together with the human genome project affords a platform for considering what it is that makes humans distinctive. Beginning with an essay that accents the nature of the problem within a behavioristic framework and concluding with reflections on the prospects for a form of immortality through serial cloning, the chapters are divided into three sections, which concern how and why consciousness may have evolved, special capacities involving language, creativity, and mentality as candidates for evolved adaptations, and the prospects for artificial evolution though the design of robots with specific forms of consciousness and mind. This volume should appeal to every reader who wants to better understand the human species, including its distinctive properties and its place in nature. (Series A)
[Advances in Consciousness Research, 34] 2002. xx, 253 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Contributors | p. ix
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Introduction | p. xiii
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Prologue
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Turing indistinguishability and the blind watchmakerStevan Harnad | pp. 3–18
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Part I: Natural consciousness
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Consciousness, adaptation and epiphenomenalismThomas W. Polger and Owen Flanagan | pp. 21–41
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The functions of consciousnessDavid Cole | pp. 43–62
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Sensations and grain processesGeorge Graham and Terry Horgan | pp. 63–86
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Part II: Special adaptations
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Evolution, consciousness, and the language of thoughtJames W. Garson | pp. 89–110
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Why did evolution engineer consciousness?Selmer Bringsjord, Ron Noel and David Ferrucci | pp. 111–138
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Nothing without mindStephen Clark | pp. 139–160
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Part III: Artificial consciousness
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The emergence of grounded representations: The power and limits of sensory-motor coordinationStefano Nolfi and Oraxio Miglino | pp. 163–180
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Ago Ergo SumDario Floreano | pp. 181–204
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Evolving robot consciousness: The easy problems and the restInman Harvey | pp. 205–219
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Epilogue
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The future with cloning: On the possibility of serial immortalityNeil Tennant | pp. 223–237
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Subject index | pp. 239–245
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Name index | pp. 247–251
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Fetzer, James H.
2013. Evolving Consciousness: The Very Idea!.
In Origins of Mind [Biosemiotics, 8],
► pp. 225 ff. 
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Subjects & Metadata
Consciousness Research
Philosophy
Psychology
BIC Subject: HP – Philosophy
BISAC Subject: PHI000000 – PHILOSOPHY / General