Intellectual Entertainments: Eight Dialogues on Mind, Consciousness and Thought

242 Pages·2019·10.274 MB·English

by  P. M. S. Hacker

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Intellectual Entertainments
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The symposium by Roger Vieillard
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Intellectual Entertainments

Eight Dialogues on Mind,
Consciousness and Thought
P. M. S. Hacker
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Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2020
by ANTHEM PRESS
75– 76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
Copyright © P. M. S. Hacker 2020
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing- in- Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Library of Congress Control Number:2019949902
ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 78527- 152- 6 (Hbk)
ISBN- 10: 1- 78527- 152- 0 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e- book.
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For
Jonathan, Adam and Jocelyn
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CONTENTS

Preface ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Section 1 Two Dialogues on Mind and Body 1
Introduction 3
First Dialogue On the Nature of the Mind 7
A dialogue in Elysium between Aristotle, Descartes,
Richard (an Oxford don), Jill (a philosopher) and
Frank Craik (an American neuroscientist)
Second Dialogue The Mind and the Body 33
A further dialogue in Elysium between Alan White,
Peter Strawson, Richard (an Oxford don),
Jill (a philosopher) and Frank Craik
(an American neuroscientist)
Section 2 Two Dialogues on Consciousness 55
Introduction 57
Third Dialogue The Mystery of Consciousness 61
A dialogue in Oxford between Bruce Palmer
(an Australian philosopher), Christopher Cook
(an American neuroscientist), Adam Blackstone
(an Oxford don), Sandy MacPherson (a Scottish
biologist) and a Viennese stranger
Fourth Dialogue Consciousness as Experience – Consciousness
as Life Itself 81
A further dialogue in Oxford between Bruce Palmer
(an Australian philosopher), Christopher Cook (an
American neuroscientist), Adam Blackstone (an Oxford
don), Jocelyn Thomas and a Viennese stranger
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viii INTELLECTUAL ENTERTAINMENTS
Section 3 A Dialogue on the Objectivity or
Subjectivity of Perceptual Qualities 109
Introduction 111
Fifth Dialogue On the Objectivity or Subjectivity of Perceptual
Qualities 113
A dialogue in Elysium between Socrates, Dr James
Lockett (a pupil of Locke’s), Ronnie Freiberg
(an American scientist), Timothy Swan
(an Oxford professor of philosophy) and Thomas
Roe (an Oxford undergraduate)
Section 4 Two Dialogues on Thought 143
Introduction 145
Sixth Dialogue Thought 149
A dialogue in Elysium between Socrates, John Locke,
Frank (a neuroscientist), Paul (an Oxford don) and
Alan (a Scottish post- doc)
Seventh Dialogue Thought and Language 177
A further dialogue in Elysium between Socrates,
John Locke, Frank (a neuroscientist), Paul
(an Oxford don) and Alan (a Scottish post- doc)
Section 5 A Dialogue on Ownership of Pain 201
Introduction 203
Eighth Dialogue Can You Have My Pain? Can Different People
Have the Same Pain? 207
A dialogue in Elysium between Gottlob Frege, Ludwig
Wittgenstein, Peter Strawson, Wolfgang Künne and
John Searle