Conscious Experience: A Logical Inquiry

· Harvard University Press
E-book
440
Páginas
As notas e avaliações não são verificadas Saiba mais

Sobre este e-book

A distinguished philosopher offers a novel account of experience and reason, and develops our understanding of conscious experience and its relationship to thought: a new reformed empiricism.

The role of experience in cognition is a central and ancient philosophical concern. How, theorists ask, can our private experiences guide us to knowledge of a mind-independent reality? Exploring topics in logic, philosophy of mind, and epistemology, Conscious Experience proposes a new answer to this age-old question, explaining how conscious experience contributes to the rationality and content of empirical beliefs.

According to Anil Gupta, this contribution cannot be determined independently of an agent’s conceptual scheme and prior beliefs, but that doesn’t mean it is entirely mind-dependent. While the rational contribution of an experience is not propositional—it does not, for example, provide direct knowledge of the world—it does authorize certain transitions from prior views to new views. In short, the rational contribution of an experience yields a rule for revising views. Gupta shows that this account provides theoretical freedom: it allows the observer to radically reconceive the world in light of empirical findings. Simultaneously, it grants empirical reason significant power to constrain, forcing particular conceptions of self and world on the rational inquirer. These seemingly contrary virtues are reconciled through novel treatments of presentation, appearances, and ostensive definitions.

Collectively, Gupta’s arguments support an original theory: reformed empiricism. He abandons the idea that experience is a source of knowledge and justification. He also abandons the idea that concepts are derived from experience. But reformed empiricism preserves empiricism’s central insight: experience is the supreme epistemic authority. In the resolution of factual disagreements, experience trumps all.

Avaliar este e-book

Diga o que você achou

Informações de leitura

Smartphones e tablets
Instale o app Google Play Livros para Android e iPad/iPhone. Ele sincroniza automaticamente com sua conta e permite ler on-line ou off-line, o que você preferir.
Laptops e computadores
Você pode ouvir audiolivros comprados no Google Play usando o navegador da Web do seu computador.
eReaders e outros dispositivos
Para ler em dispositivos de e-ink como os e-readers Kobo, é necessário fazer o download e transferir um arquivo para o aparelho. Siga as instruções detalhadas da Central de Ajuda se quiser transferir arquivos para os e-readers compatíveis.