Sisyphus’s Boulder
Consciousness and the limits of the knowable
Consciousness lies at the core of being human. Therefore, to understand ourselves, we need a theory of consciousness. In Sisyphus's Boulder, Eric Dietrich and Valerie Hardcastle argue that we will never get such a theory because consciousness has an essential property that prevents it from ever being explained. Consequently, philosophical debates over materialism and dualism are a waste of time. Scientific explanations of consciousness fare no better. Scientists do study consciousness, and such investigations will continue to grow and advance. However, none of them will ever reveal what consciousness is. In addition, given the centrality of consciousness in philosophy, Dietrich and Hardcastle claim that philosophy itself needs to change. That the central problems of philosophy persist is actually a profound epistemic fact about humans. Philosophy, then, is a limit to what humans can understand. (Series A)
[Advances in Consciousness Research, 60] 2005. xii, 136 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgements
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Introduction | pp. 1–3
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1.Intuitions at an impasse: The explanatory landscape | pp. 5–19
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Part I:Troubles with Naturalism
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2. Against naturalism: The logical boundary of conscious perception | pp. 23–38
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3.The dismal prospects for naturalism | pp. 39–52
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Part II: Aspects of a science of consciousness
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4.How to avoid being a mysterian | pp. 55–70
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5.Science in the face of mystery | pp. 71–87
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Part III: An application: Consciousness and philosophy
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6. How consciousness creates philosophy | pp. 91–102
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Appendix: Problems with zombies: A discussion of Chalmers's arguments for dualism | pp. 103–115
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Notes | pp. 117–125
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Index | pp. 131–133
“Sisyphus’s Boulder is a bold reformulation of the problem of consciousness that denies the existence of a reductive explanatory theory of consciousness. Dietrich and Hardcastle take aim at the leading theories of our time and masterfully expose the fundamental weaknesses of each theory. This book is written with wit and insight and should be read by all conscious entities.”
John P. Sullins, Sonoma State University
“[...] enjoyable and thought provoking.”
Hugh Noble, in the Jnl. of Consciousness Studies, Vol. 12:7 (2005)
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Albertazzi, Liliana
2024. An Unavoidable Mind-Set Reversal: Consciousness in Vision Science. Brain Sciences 14:7 ► pp. 735 ff. 
Fields, Chris, James F Glazebrook & Michael Levin
2021. Minimal physicalism as a scale-free substrate for cognition and consciousness. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2021:2
Baars, Bernard J.
2017. The Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness. In The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, ► pp. 227 ff.
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Subjects
Consciousness Research
Philosophy
Main BIC Subject
JMT: States of consciousness
Main BISAC Subject
PSY020000: PSYCHOLOGY / Neuropsychology