The Conscious Mind

What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? David J. Chalmers unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship betwe...

What is consciousness? How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the self-aware mind and to feelings as profoundly varied as love or hate, aesthetic pleasure or spiritual yearning? David J. Chalmers unveils a major new theory of consciousness, one that rejects the prevailing reductionist trend of science, while offering provocative insights into the relationship between mind and brain. Writing in a thought-provoking style, Chalmers proposes that conscious experience must be understood as an irreducible entity similar to such physical properties as time, mass, and space that exists at a fundamental level and cannot be understood as the sum of its parts. Engaging and penetrating, this book adds a fresh new perspective to the subject that is sure to spark debate about our understanding of the mind for years to come.

大卫·J·查默斯（David John Chalmers），原籍澳大利亚，现任美国亚利桑那大学哲学教授，意识研究中心主任，纽约大学客座教授，当代知名的心灵哲学家。主要论著有：《有意识的心灵》（1996）、《面对意识问题》（1995）、《延展心灵》（合著，1998）、《意识和它在自然中的位置》（2002）、《意识的特征》（2010）等。作者提出的二维语义学理论在分析哲学领域也有重要影响。