Human and Animal Minds: The Consciousness Questions Laid to Rest

ISBN-13: 9780198843702 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 240 str.

Peter Carruthers

Opis

Claims about consciousness in animals are often made in support of their moral standing. Peter Carruthers argues that there is no fact of the matter about animal consciousness and it is of no scientific or ethical significance. Sympathy for an animal can be grounded in its mental states, but should not rely on assumptions about its consciousness.

Recenzje

Peter Carruthers stands out among philosophers for having previously argued that most animals lack conscious experiences. He returns to the question of non-human consciousness in Human and Animal Minds with another striking view. Where he once proposed that the capacity for higher-order thoughts is essential to phenomenal consciousness and restricted to a small number of species, he now regards its significance as indeterminate. He infers that for many species, there is no fact of the matter either way. ... While Carruthers makes a compelling case, many details remain to be filled in.

O autorze

Peter Carruthers is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland. He is the author of numerous articles and books in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, and has co-edited seven volumes of interdisciplinary essays in cognitive science. Recent publications include The Opacity of Mind (Oxford 2011) and The Centered Mind (Oxford 2015). In 2018, he won the annual Romanell Prize awarded by the American Philosophical Association.