The "Cartesian Theater" is Dennett's famous metaphor for the idea that a homunculus or "little man" watches the screen on which our thoughts appear. However, contrary to much academic teaching and scholarship, Spectator in the Cartesian Theater: Where Theories of Mind Went Wrong since Descartes shows that Descartes was not guilty of this fallacy for which he has been blamed. In his physiological writings neglected by philosophers, Descartes explained that the pseudo-explanation arises not from what is included in our theory of consciousness, but rather from what is missing. We fail to notice that the theory is incomplete because we are intuitively doing part of the explanatory work. That is, we are the spectators in the Cartesian Theater.
With detailed critiques, Peter Slezak shows that Searle's Chinese Room Argument, Kripke's theory of proper names, Davidson's semantics of natural language and Kosslyn's theory of visual imagery rely on what is intuitively meaningful to us rather than what follows from the theory. Slezak offers a novel solution to the elusive logic of the Cogito argument, showing it to be akin to the Liar Paradox. Since Descartes' perplexity is our own, this shows how the subjective certainty of consciousness and the mind-body problem can arise for a physical system. An intelligent computer would think that it isn't one.
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Spectator in the Cartesian Theater
Where Theories of Mind Went Wrong since Descartes
- 347 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
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Information
Topic
PhilosophySubtopic
Language in PhilosophyTable of contents
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Illusions
- 1. Dangerous Meditations
- 2. Illusionism and The Phenomenological Fallacy
- 3. What It’s Like: Conscious Experience Itself
- 4. Cogito, Ergo Sum: The Diagonal Deduction
- 5. The Mind’s Eye: Visual Imagery
- 6. In the Chinese Room: Life Without Meaning1
- 7. Meaning: Interpretation or Explanation?
- 8. Proper Names: The Omniscient Observer
- 9. The Theory of Ideas: Fodor’s Guilty Passions
- 10. Descartes’ Neurocomputational Philosophy
- 11. What is Knowledge?The Gettier Problem
- 12. Disjunctivism: The Argument from Illusion (Again)
- 13. Newcomb’s Problem: Demons, Deceivers, and Liars
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- About the Author
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Yes, you can access Spectator in the Cartesian Theater by Peter Slezak in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Philosophy & Language in Philosophy. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.