- 316 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
What is the relationship between consciousness and our brain? Are they one and the same? Who are we really? The Consciousness Network presents a novel account of one of the greatest scientific challenges of the twenty-first century: understanding the connection between brain and mind.
The book explores remarkable cases of patients who demonstrate how our impression of reality is created by the brain. Age-old questions about dreams, colour perception, phantom sensations and hallucinations are illuminated by surprising discoveries from the latest brain research. How does consciousness differ from memory, emotions and behaviour? How did it develop during the evolution of life on earth, and does it serve a purpose? Does the brain leave room for free will? In this unique blend of philosophy, history, psychology and neuroscience, Cyriel Pennartz breaks new ground by presenting an original theory of brain and mind, substantiated by brain research in patients and healthy people. This theory, inspired by the seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza, goes significantly deeper than current thinking based on computer models or artificial intelligence.
The Consciousness Network is essential reading for students working at the interface of neuroscience, cognitive psychology, philosophy of mind and cognitive science, as well as anyone interested in consciousness and the brain.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Endorsements
- Half-Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- 1 A dark dungeon for our brains: What is consciousness? On the curious connection between brain, mind and electricity
- 2 A phantom on the operating table: Descartesā quest in Amsterdam: the dissection of the body and the indivisibility of consciousness
- 3 Memory absorbed: How our awareness of the here and now can be decoupled from the past and the future
- 4 Curses and deceit above the eye sockets: On emotions, consciousness and the tragic fate of their intimate relationship
- 5 Aurora and the almond: On psychic blindness and transactions on the emotional stock market
- 6 The genie out of the bottle: On what slipper animals, paralysis and dreams show us about the relationship between movement and consciousness
- 7 Feeling rich in what you do not have: How consciousness is related to corporeality, learning and language, but at the same time escapes these
- 8 Visual consciousness peeled off: Why one blindness is not the other, and what this tells us about brain hubs for visual perception
- 9 Suspended in the primeval sea: What zombies and the first animals on Earth reveal about the biological function of consciousness
- 10 A code in cuneiform script: On the simulacrum our brain creates
- 11 Predicting the present: How does the brain construct a model of the world and your body?
- 12 A strange encounter with the world, your body and yourself: A brief autobiography of self-awareness
- 13 The free will of Tolmanās rats: On the hidden mental life of rodents, imaginary actions and independent decisions
- 14 Fake news in the brain: Does our reality consist of arbitrary symbols?
- 15 Under the hood of our imagination: How consciousness, in spite of everything, manages to rise above brain cells
- 16 When computers begin to see: On artificial intelligence and machines that learn on their own, but are devoid of consciousness
- Glossary
- Thank you
- Notes
- Literature
- Index