Robert Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199285488
- eISBN:
- 9780191603150
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199285489.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
By definition, zombies would be behaviourally and physically just like us, but not conscious. If a zombie world is possible, then physicalism is false. Just as importantly, the seductive conception ...
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By definition, zombies would be behaviourally and physically just like us, but not conscious. If a zombie world is possible, then physicalism is false. Just as importantly, the seductive conception of phenomenal consciousness embodied by the zombie idea is fundamentally misconceived. One of this book’s two main aims is to bring out the incoherence of the zombie idea with the help of an intuitively appealing argument (the ‘sole-pictures argument’). The other is to develop a fresh approach to understanding phenomenal consciousness by exploiting two key notions: that of a ‘basic package’ of capacities which is necessary and sufficient for perception in the full sense; and that of ‘direct activity’, which, when combined with the basic package, is necessary and sufficient for perceptual consciousness. These definitions may apply to quite humble creatures, and even to suitably constructed artefacts.Less
By definition, zombies would be behaviourally and physically just like us, but not conscious. If a zombie world is possible, then physicalism is false. Just as importantly, the seductive conception of phenomenal consciousness embodied by the zombie idea is fundamentally misconceived. One of this book’s two main aims is to bring out the incoherence of the zombie idea with the help of an intuitively appealing argument (the ‘sole-pictures argument’). The other is to develop a fresh approach to understanding phenomenal consciousness by exploiting two key notions: that of a ‘basic package’ of capacities which is necessary and sufficient for perception in the full sense; and that of ‘direct activity’, which, when combined with the basic package, is necessary and sufficient for perceptual consciousness. These definitions may apply to quite humble creatures, and even to suitably constructed artefacts.
Michael Spivey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195170788
- eISBN:
- 9780199786831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195170788.003.0012
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
This final chapter takes a somewhat more speculative turn to discussing what role the concept of consciousness might have in a complex continuous dynamical system, such as a brain enmeshed in a body ...
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This final chapter takes a somewhat more speculative turn to discussing what role the concept of consciousness might have in a complex continuous dynamical system, such as a brain enmeshed in a body enmeshed in its environment. It is argued that the “hard problem” of consciousness has defined itself out of the realm of scientific measurability. Moreover, since all evidence for consciousness comes from self-conscious reports, what we should perhaps instead be trying to understand are the processes that bring about self-consciousness (typically relegated to the “easy problems” of consciousness). The chapter concludes with concrete visualizations of a mental state-space in which a continuous nonlinear trajectory constitutes everything from perception to thought to planning, and even self-consciousness.Less
This final chapter takes a somewhat more speculative turn to discussing what role the concept of consciousness might have in a complex continuous dynamical system, such as a brain enmeshed in a body enmeshed in its environment. It is argued that the “hard problem” of consciousness has defined itself out of the realm of scientific measurability. Moreover, since all evidence for consciousness comes from self-conscious reports, what we should perhaps instead be trying to understand are the processes that bring about self-consciousness (typically relegated to the “easy problems” of consciousness). The chapter concludes with concrete visualizations of a mental state-space in which a continuous nonlinear trajectory constitutes everything from perception to thought to planning, and even self-consciousness.
Barry Dainton
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199288847
- eISBN:
- 9780191710742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199288847.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter begins with a survey of the sorts of states and capacities to be found in typical human minds, focusing on the differing extents to which these have phenomenal aspects or manifestations. ...
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This chapter begins with a survey of the sorts of states and capacities to be found in typical human minds, focusing on the differing extents to which these have phenomenal aspects or manifestations. Addressing the question: ‘do zombies have minds?’ proves to be a useful way of clarifying this issue. The C-theory is augmented so as to accommodate the non-experiential aspects of mind. Two types of self are distinguished: phenomenal and non-phenomenal. This distinction proves useful when considering the question: ‘what matters in survival?’ It is argued that when psychological and experiential continuities diverge, our deepest identity-related concerns remain locked on to the latter. The same distinction also sheds useful light onto the intuitions evoked by imaginary scenarios featuring teleportation.Less
This chapter begins with a survey of the sorts of states and capacities to be found in typical human minds, focusing on the differing extents to which these have phenomenal aspects or manifestations. Addressing the question: ‘do zombies have minds?’ proves to be a useful way of clarifying this issue. The C-theory is augmented so as to accommodate the non-experiential aspects of mind. Two types of self are distinguished: phenomenal and non-phenomenal. This distinction proves useful when considering the question: ‘what matters in survival?’ It is argued that when psychological and experiential continuities diverge, our deepest identity-related concerns remain locked on to the latter. The same distinction also sheds useful light onto the intuitions evoked by imaginary scenarios featuring teleportation.
Margo Collins and Elson Bond
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This chapter probes the depiction of zombies in such contemporary novels as World War Z, Zombie Haiku, and the revisionist classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Authors Margo Collins and Elson ...
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This chapter probes the depiction of zombies in such contemporary novels as World War Z, Zombie Haiku, and the revisionist classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Authors Margo Collins and Elson Bond argue that the zombie is uniquely appealing to today's technologically savvy, fast-paced generation and, as such, can serve as a mirror for some of Generation Y's values and notions of identity. New millennium zombie-ism demonstrates an apparent divergence into what initially appears to be two distinct categories: zombie-as-comedy and zombie-as-threat, but as the chapter argues, time and again those two categories overlap in intriguing and symbolic ways. Ultimately, depictions of both kinds of zombies come to function as monstrous placeholders for potentially dangerous human interactions in an anomic society. Accustomed to instant communication with virtual strangers, insulated from the natural world and dependent on fragile transportation, communication, and power networks, millennial audiences have good reason to fear the chaotic anonymity of zombies.Less
This chapter probes the depiction of zombies in such contemporary novels as World War Z, Zombie Haiku, and the revisionist classic Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Authors Margo Collins and Elson Bond argue that the zombie is uniquely appealing to today's technologically savvy, fast-paced generation and, as such, can serve as a mirror for some of Generation Y's values and notions of identity. New millennium zombie-ism demonstrates an apparent divergence into what initially appears to be two distinct categories: zombie-as-comedy and zombie-as-threat, but as the chapter argues, time and again those two categories overlap in intriguing and symbolic ways. Ultimately, depictions of both kinds of zombies come to function as monstrous placeholders for potentially dangerous human interactions in an anomic society. Accustomed to instant communication with virtual strangers, insulated from the natural world and dependent on fragile transportation, communication, and power networks, millennial audiences have good reason to fear the chaotic anonymity of zombies.
R. M. Sainsbury and Michael Tye
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199695317
- eISBN:
- 9780191738531
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695317.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Language
This chapter applies originalism to three further problems: the content of hallucinatory experience, the epistemic role of perception, and arguments against physicalism based on conceivability ...
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This chapter applies originalism to three further problems: the content of hallucinatory experience, the epistemic role of perception, and arguments against physicalism based on conceivability (especially zombie-based arguments).Less
This chapter applies originalism to three further problems: the content of hallucinatory experience, the epistemic role of perception, and arguments against physicalism based on conceivability (especially zombie-based arguments).
Tim Bayne
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199215386
- eISBN:
- 9780191594786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215386.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, General
This chapter provides a framework for the third‐person evaluation of the unity thesis. The framework involves two ‘moments’: a ‘positive moment’ and a ‘negative moment.’ The former is concerned with ...
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This chapter provides a framework for the third‐person evaluation of the unity thesis. The framework involves two ‘moments’: a ‘positive moment’ and a ‘negative moment.’ The former is concerned with showing that a creature enjoys certain conscious states; the latter is concerned with showing that those states are not phenomenally unified with each other. The first half of the chapter focuses on the positive moment, and argues for an approach to the ascription of consciousness that has as its heart goal‐directed behaviour. The second half of the chapter presents two ways in which the negative moment can be executed: by appeal to representational disunity and by appeal to access disunity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of ways in which two features of consciousness—its probe-dependence on the one hand and its federal structure on the other—might complicate the evaluation of any argument for disunity.Less
This chapter provides a framework for the third‐person evaluation of the unity thesis. The framework involves two ‘moments’: a ‘positive moment’ and a ‘negative moment.’ The former is concerned with showing that a creature enjoys certain conscious states; the latter is concerned with showing that those states are not phenomenally unified with each other. The first half of the chapter focuses on the positive moment, and argues for an approach to the ascription of consciousness that has as its heart goal‐directed behaviour. The second half of the chapter presents two ways in which the negative moment can be executed: by appeal to representational disunity and by appeal to access disunity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of ways in which two features of consciousness—its probe-dependence on the one hand and its federal structure on the other—might complicate the evaluation of any argument for disunity.
Tim Bayne
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199215386
- eISBN:
- 9780191594786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199215386.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, General
This chapter examines the claim that the unity of consciousness is lost in the context of forms of hypnosis that involve a ‘hidden observer.’ According to a number of theorists—most notably ...
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This chapter examines the claim that the unity of consciousness is lost in the context of forms of hypnosis that involve a ‘hidden observer.’ According to a number of theorists—most notably Hilgard—some hypnotized subjects have two streams of consciousness at once: a ‘covert’ stream that is accessible only by way of ‘hidden observer’ probes, and an overt stream that is accessible in the normal ways. The evidence in favour of this ‘two‐streams’ model of the hidden observer is examined and found to be quite strong. However, an even more plausible account of the hidden observer holds that hidden observer subjects have a single stream of consciousness that switches back and forth between ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ states. The hidden observer prompt changes the content of the patient's experience by directing his or her attention to stimuli that had previously been neglected.Less
This chapter examines the claim that the unity of consciousness is lost in the context of forms of hypnosis that involve a ‘hidden observer.’ According to a number of theorists—most notably Hilgard—some hypnotized subjects have two streams of consciousness at once: a ‘covert’ stream that is accessible only by way of ‘hidden observer’ probes, and an overt stream that is accessible in the normal ways. The evidence in favour of this ‘two‐streams’ model of the hidden observer is examined and found to be quite strong. However, an even more plausible account of the hidden observer holds that hidden observer subjects have a single stream of consciousness that switches back and forth between ‘overt’ and ‘covert’ states. The hidden observer prompt changes the content of the patient's experience by directing his or her attention to stimuli that had previously been neglected.
Mark Siderits
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199593804
- eISBN:
- 9780191595691
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199593804.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Religion
While some Buddhist philosophers maintain that consciousness is necessarily reflexive in nature, others deny this. Here it is maintained that there are good philosophical reasons to deny that ...
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While some Buddhist philosophers maintain that consciousness is necessarily reflexive in nature, others deny this. Here it is maintained that there are good philosophical reasons to deny that consciousness is reflexive. The consequences of such a denial must then be explored, given the general Buddhist commitment to the position that consciousness is ownerless. Such a view would have to claim that a cognition can only be cognized by a distinct cognition. This other-illumination thesis took several distinct forms in the Indian tradition. The one form that would be both compatible with the Buddhist non-self view and philosophically defensible has the surprising consequence that consciousness is reducible to non-conscious states. Some of the ramifications of the resulting reductionism about the mental are discussed.Less
While some Buddhist philosophers maintain that consciousness is necessarily reflexive in nature, others deny this. Here it is maintained that there are good philosophical reasons to deny that consciousness is reflexive. The consequences of such a denial must then be explored, given the general Buddhist commitment to the position that consciousness is ownerless. Such a view would have to claim that a cognition can only be cognized by a distinct cognition. This other-illumination thesis took several distinct forms in the Indian tradition. The one form that would be both compatible with the Buddhist non-self view and philosophically defensible has the surprising consequence that consciousness is reducible to non-conscious states. Some of the ramifications of the resulting reductionism about the mental are discussed.
Dorothea Fischer-Hornung and Monika Mueller (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781496804747
- eISBN:
- 9781496804785
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496804747.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The undead are very much alive in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Monsters in general, and vampires and zombies specifically, have garnered a generous amount of attention in print media, cinema, ...
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The undead are very much alive in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Monsters in general, and vampires and zombies specifically, have garnered a generous amount of attention in print media, cinema, and on television. The vampire, with its roots in medieval European folklore, and the zombie, with its origins in Afro-Caribbean voodoo mythology, find multiple transformations in global culture and continue to function as deviant representatives of zeitgeist. As the authors in this volume demonstrate, the transspacial and transtemporal distributions of vampires and zombies have revealed the figures to be highly variable signifiers. Currently, of all monsters, vampires and zombies seem to be the most trendy—the most humanly embodied of the undead and the most frequently paired monsters in the media and popular culture.Moreover, both figures have experienced radical reinterpretation in the context of contemporary cultural concerns. If in the past vampires were evil, blood-sucking exploiters and zombies were brainless victims, they now have metamorphosed into kinder and gentler vampires and cruel, flesh-eating zombies. Further, they have simultaneously contracted and expanded gender, race and class roles, at once confirming and deconstructing these concepts. Although the portrayal of both vampires and zombies can be traced to specific regions and predates mass media, the introduction of mass distribution through film and game technologies has served to significantly modify their depiction over time and in various locations. This volume—authored by scholars from different national and cultural backgrounds—explores some of these transformations the vampire and zombie figures experience when they travel globally and through various media.Less
The undead are very much alive in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Monsters in general, and vampires and zombies specifically, have garnered a generous amount of attention in print media, cinema, and on television. The vampire, with its roots in medieval European folklore, and the zombie, with its origins in Afro-Caribbean voodoo mythology, find multiple transformations in global culture and continue to function as deviant representatives of zeitgeist. As the authors in this volume demonstrate, the transspacial and transtemporal distributions of vampires and zombies have revealed the figures to be highly variable signifiers. Currently, of all monsters, vampires and zombies seem to be the most trendy—the most humanly embodied of the undead and the most frequently paired monsters in the media and popular culture.Moreover, both figures have experienced radical reinterpretation in the context of contemporary cultural concerns. If in the past vampires were evil, blood-sucking exploiters and zombies were brainless victims, they now have metamorphosed into kinder and gentler vampires and cruel, flesh-eating zombies. Further, they have simultaneously contracted and expanded gender, race and class roles, at once confirming and deconstructing these concepts. Although the portrayal of both vampires and zombies can be traced to specific regions and predates mass media, the introduction of mass distribution through film and game technologies has served to significantly modify their depiction over time and in various locations. This volume—authored by scholars from different national and cultural backgrounds—explores some of these transformations the vampire and zombie figures experience when they travel globally and through various media.
Camilla Fojas
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252040924
- eISBN:
- 9780252099441
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252040924.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The alarm and anxiety unleashed by the Great Recession found fascinating expression across popular culture. Harried survivors negotiated societal collapse among zombies in The Walking Dead. ...
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The alarm and anxiety unleashed by the Great Recession found fascinating expression across popular culture. Harried survivors negotiated societal collapse among zombies in The Walking Dead. Middle-class whites crossed the literal and metaphorical Mexican border on Breaking Bad or coped with a lack of freedom among the marginalized on Orange Is the New Black. Camilla Fojas uses representations of people of color, the incarcerated, migrants, and trans/queers--vulnerable populations all--to explore the contradictions created by the economic crisis and its freefalling aftermath. Television, film, advertising, and media coverage of the crisis created a distinct kind of story about capitalism and the violence that supports it. Fojas shows how these pop culture moments reshaped social dynamics and people's economic sensibilities and connects the ways pop culture reflected economic devastation. She examines how racial capitalism persists through the proliferation of diverse forms of racial domination and non-European imperialism in the neoliberal era. Racial hierarchies are supplemented by other typologies, ones that are racialized but contain different symbolic capacities, particularly that between migrant or refugee or displaced person and citizen and global North and global South. Zombies, Migrants, and Queers shows how racial capitalism creates new tributaries of oppression in its neoliberal imperial form.Less
The alarm and anxiety unleashed by the Great Recession found fascinating expression across popular culture. Harried survivors negotiated societal collapse among zombies in The Walking Dead. Middle-class whites crossed the literal and metaphorical Mexican border on Breaking Bad or coped with a lack of freedom among the marginalized on Orange Is the New Black. Camilla Fojas uses representations of people of color, the incarcerated, migrants, and trans/queers--vulnerable populations all--to explore the contradictions created by the economic crisis and its freefalling aftermath. Television, film, advertising, and media coverage of the crisis created a distinct kind of story about capitalism and the violence that supports it. Fojas shows how these pop culture moments reshaped social dynamics and people's economic sensibilities and connects the ways pop culture reflected economic devastation. She examines how racial capitalism persists through the proliferation of diverse forms of racial domination and non-European imperialism in the neoliberal era. Racial hierarchies are supplemented by other typologies, ones that are racialized but contain different symbolic capacities, particularly that between migrant or refugee or displaced person and citizen and global North and global South. Zombies, Migrants, and Queers shows how racial capitalism creates new tributaries of oppression in its neoliberal imperial form.
Wallace Matson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199812691
- eISBN:
- 9780199919420
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199812691.003.0018
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Cartesian skepticism, unlike Pyrrhonism, was total, calling into question low beliefs as well as high. Descartes himself was not a skeptic but set out the argument in its favor for the purpose of ...
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Cartesian skepticism, unlike Pyrrhonism, was total, calling into question low beliefs as well as high. Descartes himself was not a skeptic but set out the argument in its favor for the purpose of refuting it and thereby strengthening theology. His argument was only possible against a specifically medieval background, his Evil Demon being the Omnipotent Creator-Legislator (OCL) in disguise. But as the skepticism was more convincing than the refutation, this concept is still around in our day, responsible for ‘modern’ philosophy's obsession with finding ‘foundations’ for knowledge. The pattern of the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, which moves from subjective conceivability to objective existence, can still be discerned in David Chalmers's advocacy of mind-body dualism: the subjective ‘logical possibility’ of zombies purporting to show the objective reality of the schism.Less
Cartesian skepticism, unlike Pyrrhonism, was total, calling into question low beliefs as well as high. Descartes himself was not a skeptic but set out the argument in its favor for the purpose of refuting it and thereby strengthening theology. His argument was only possible against a specifically medieval background, his Evil Demon being the Omnipotent Creator-Legislator (OCL) in disguise. But as the skepticism was more convincing than the refutation, this concept is still around in our day, responsible for ‘modern’ philosophy's obsession with finding ‘foundations’ for knowledge. The pattern of the Ontological Argument for the existence of God, which moves from subjective conceivability to objective existence, can still be discerned in David Chalmers's advocacy of mind-body dualism: the subjective ‘logical possibility’ of zombies purporting to show the objective reality of the schism.
Robert Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199285488
- eISBN:
- 9780191603150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199285489.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
A cook was charged with cruelty to animals for putting live prawns on a hot-plate, but the case was dropped for lack of expertise on whether prawns could suffer pain. What matters from the point of ...
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A cook was charged with cruelty to animals for putting live prawns on a hot-plate, but the case was dropped for lack of expertise on whether prawns could suffer pain. What matters from the point of view of an interest in whether a creature is phenomenally conscious: whether there is ‘something it is like’ for it? Even if all the physical facts are known, might it still lack phenomenal consciousness, as ‘zombists’ (those who think zombies are conceivable) claim? The problem is not merely scientific: philosophical explanations are needed. This chapter introduces those and other central topics, and outlines the book.Less
A cook was charged with cruelty to animals for putting live prawns on a hot-plate, but the case was dropped for lack of expertise on whether prawns could suffer pain. What matters from the point of view of an interest in whether a creature is phenomenally conscious: whether there is ‘something it is like’ for it? Even if all the physical facts are known, might it still lack phenomenal consciousness, as ‘zombists’ (those who think zombies are conceivable) claim? The problem is not merely scientific: philosophical explanations are needed. This chapter introduces those and other central topics, and outlines the book.
Robert Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199285488
- eISBN:
- 9780191603150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199285489.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Epiphenomenalism accepts the causal closure of the physical, hence the possibility of zombies. But it is argued, via consideration of the ‘redescription thesis’, that physicalism involves commitment ...
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Epiphenomenalism accepts the causal closure of the physical, hence the possibility of zombies. But it is argued, via consideration of the ‘redescription thesis’, that physicalism involves commitment to the ‘strict implication thesis’, according to which the narrowly physical truths about the world strictly imply the significant mental truths. This is an empirical thesis but depends on logical or conceptual relations, although physicalists are not therefore compelled to subscribe to any strong doctrine of conceptual analysis. It follows that if zombies are even barely possible, physicalism is false. It also follows that bald assertions of psycho-physical identity do not dispense physicalists from commitment to this conclusion, nor does a thesis of a posteriori necessity.Less
Epiphenomenalism accepts the causal closure of the physical, hence the possibility of zombies. But it is argued, via consideration of the ‘redescription thesis’, that physicalism involves commitment to the ‘strict implication thesis’, according to which the narrowly physical truths about the world strictly imply the significant mental truths. This is an empirical thesis but depends on logical or conceptual relations, although physicalists are not therefore compelled to subscribe to any strong doctrine of conceptual analysis. It follows that if zombies are even barely possible, physicalism is false. It also follows that bald assertions of psycho-physical identity do not dispense physicalists from commitment to this conclusion, nor does a thesis of a posteriori necessity.
Robert Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199285488
- eISBN:
- 9780191603150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199285489.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
The definition of zombies is clarified, and the main arguments for the alleged possibility of zombies are examined. The ‘conceivability argument’ is influential: zombies are conceivable; whatever is ...
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The definition of zombies is clarified, and the main arguments for the alleged possibility of zombies are examined. The ‘conceivability argument’ is influential: zombies are conceivable; whatever is conceivable is possible; therefore zombies are possible. Chalmers’s arguments for conceivability are given special attention, notably his use of Block’s homunculus-head; the apparent gap between physical information and facts about experiences; Jackson’s ‘knowledge argument’; and the argument from the ‘absence of analysis’. It is argued that none of the arguments is conclusive.Less
The definition of zombies is clarified, and the main arguments for the alleged possibility of zombies are examined. The ‘conceivability argument’ is influential: zombies are conceivable; whatever is conceivable is possible; therefore zombies are possible. Chalmers’s arguments for conceivability are given special attention, notably his use of Block’s homunculus-head; the apparent gap between physical information and facts about experiences; Jackson’s ‘knowledge argument’; and the argument from the ‘absence of analysis’. It is argued that none of the arguments is conclusive.
Robert Kirk
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199285488
- eISBN:
- 9780191603150
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199285489.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Although the zombie idea seems to fit in with some ‘natural and plain’ intuitions (Chalmers), it conflicts with others. Reinforced by the ‘jacket fallacy’, it both feeds on and feeds an incoherent ...
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Although the zombie idea seems to fit in with some ‘natural and plain’ intuitions (Chalmers), it conflicts with others. Reinforced by the ‘jacket fallacy’, it both feeds on and feeds an incoherent conception of phenomenal consciousness. The ‘sole-pictures argument’ shows that a certain variety of epiphenomenalism is inconceivable in the relevant sense. Then it is argued that if zombies are conceivable, so is that kind of epiphenomenalism. If the reasoning is sound, the inconceivability of zombies follows. Among other corollaries of the main conclusion is that the idea of the inverted spectrum (transposed qualia) without physical differences is incoherent too.Less
Although the zombie idea seems to fit in with some ‘natural and plain’ intuitions (Chalmers), it conflicts with others. Reinforced by the ‘jacket fallacy’, it both feeds on and feeds an incoherent conception of phenomenal consciousness. The ‘sole-pictures argument’ shows that a certain variety of epiphenomenalism is inconceivable in the relevant sense. Then it is argued that if zombies are conceivable, so is that kind of epiphenomenalism. If the reasoning is sound, the inconceivability of zombies follows. Among other corollaries of the main conclusion is that the idea of the inverted spectrum (transposed qualia) without physical differences is incoherent too.
Peter Carruthers
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199277360
- eISBN:
- 9780191602597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199277362.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Argues for the need to recognise higher-order perceptual experiences and briefly argues for the superiority of the author’s own dispositional HOT version of higher-order perception (HOP) theory (here ...
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Argues for the need to recognise higher-order perceptual experiences and briefly argues for the superiority of the author’s own dispositional HOT version of higher-order perception (HOP) theory (here described as ‘dual-content theory’). But its main focus is on purely recognitional concepts of experience (often called ‘phenomenal concepts’). There is an emerging consensus amongst naturalistically minded philosophers that the existence of such concepts is the key to blocking the zombie-style arguments of both dualist mysterians like Chalmers and physicalist mysterians like McGinn and Levine. But, the author argues in this chapter that a successful account of the possibility of such concepts requires acceptance of one or another form of higher-order perception theory.Less
Argues for the need to recognise higher-order perceptual experiences and briefly argues for the superiority of the author’s own dispositional HOT version of higher-order perception (HOP) theory (here described as ‘dual-content theory’). But its main focus is on purely recognitional concepts of experience (often called ‘phenomenal concepts’). There is an emerging consensus amongst naturalistically minded philosophers that the existence of such concepts is the key to blocking the zombie-style arguments of both dualist mysterians like Chalmers and physicalist mysterians like McGinn and Levine. But, the author argues in this chapter that a successful account of the possibility of such concepts requires acceptance of one or another form of higher-order perception theory.
Herman Cappelen
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199644865
- eISBN:
- 9780191739026
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199644865.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter sets about testing empirically the claim that philosophical practice involves an implicit reliance on intuitions. It does this by examining ten philosophical thought experiments in ...
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This chapter sets about testing empirically the claim that philosophical practice involves an implicit reliance on intuitions. It does this by examining ten philosophical thought experiments in argumentative context: Perry’s cases in “The Essential Indexical”, Burge’s arthritis cases in “Individualism and the Mental”, Thomson’s violinist, Thomson’s and Foot’s trolley cases, Cohen’s lottery cases, Lehrer’s Truetemp, Goldman’s fake barn cases, Cappelen and Hawthorne’s cases on judgments of taste, Williams’ cases on personal identity, and Chalmers’ zombies. Relying on the diagnostics developed in the previous chapter, it is shown that none of the judgments involved have the special features that methodologists typically take as characteristic of intuitions.Less
This chapter sets about testing empirically the claim that philosophical practice involves an implicit reliance on intuitions. It does this by examining ten philosophical thought experiments in argumentative context: Perry’s cases in “The Essential Indexical”, Burge’s arthritis cases in “Individualism and the Mental”, Thomson’s violinist, Thomson’s and Foot’s trolley cases, Cohen’s lottery cases, Lehrer’s Truetemp, Goldman’s fake barn cases, Cappelen and Hawthorne’s cases on judgments of taste, Williams’ cases on personal identity, and Chalmers’ zombies. Relying on the diagnostics developed in the previous chapter, it is shown that none of the judgments involved have the special features that methodologists typically take as characteristic of intuitions.
Tim Lanzendörfer
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496819062
- eISBN:
- 9781496819109
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496819062.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Much research has been done on the zombie, a critical figure of 21st century culture, but most of it has been devoted to visual media—especially films and TV. This book is the first monograph to ...
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Much research has been done on the zombie, a critical figure of 21st century culture, but most of it has been devoted to visual media—especially films and TV. This book is the first monograph to engage the zombie as it appears in contemporary literature. It argues that the zombie is best read both as a formal feature, one that necessitates and enables certain things to happen in fiction, as well as a figure of possibility, one which is best read not symbolically in itself, but for the ideas about possible futures it makes possible. In six chapters, Books of the Dead reads key texts of zombie fiction, from Max Brooks’s World War Z through Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, touching on both so-called literary fiction, genre fiction, comics, and short fiction. It addresses zombie fiction’s capacity to speak about contemporary concerns such as community or better political futures, on race, and on gender, but also argues for the importance of the zombie to contemporary literature as such.Less
Much research has been done on the zombie, a critical figure of 21st century culture, but most of it has been devoted to visual media—especially films and TV. This book is the first monograph to engage the zombie as it appears in contemporary literature. It argues that the zombie is best read both as a formal feature, one that necessitates and enables certain things to happen in fiction, as well as a figure of possibility, one which is best read not symbolically in itself, but for the ideas about possible futures it makes possible. In six chapters, Books of the Dead reads key texts of zombie fiction, from Max Brooks’s World War Z through Colson Whitehead’s Zone One, touching on both so-called literary fiction, genre fiction, comics, and short fiction. It addresses zombie fiction’s capacity to speak about contemporary concerns such as community or better political futures, on race, and on gender, but also argues for the importance of the zombie to contemporary literature as such.
Chera Kee
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234462
- eISBN:
- 9780823241255
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234462.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Mythology and Folklore
This chapter investigates the earliest wave of zombie cinema, and the original mythology that transmitted the zombie to mainstream consciousness around the time of the U.S. occupation of Haiti. ...
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This chapter investigates the earliest wave of zombie cinema, and the original mythology that transmitted the zombie to mainstream consciousness around the time of the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Looking at the way that Saint Domingue, what would later become Haiti, was earlier characterized by European writers as a land of cannibals, this chapter juxtaposes this rhetoric to the exoticization of the Haitian that comes about during the American Occupation of Haiti. Seeing the cinematic uptake of the Haitian zombie as in line with what was clearly in evidence in the use of the figure of the cannibal in colonial writing, namely, a prurient interest in denigrating the Haitian as a savage people, this chapter analyzes the earliest appearances of the zombie and suggests how key elements of the cinematic mythology are solidified during this time period.Less
This chapter investigates the earliest wave of zombie cinema, and the original mythology that transmitted the zombie to mainstream consciousness around the time of the U.S. occupation of Haiti. Looking at the way that Saint Domingue, what would later become Haiti, was earlier characterized by European writers as a land of cannibals, this chapter juxtaposes this rhetoric to the exoticization of the Haitian that comes about during the American Occupation of Haiti. Seeing the cinematic uptake of the Haitian zombie as in line with what was clearly in evidence in the use of the figure of the cannibal in colonial writing, namely, a prurient interest in denigrating the Haitian as a savage people, this chapter analyzes the earliest appearances of the zombie and suggests how key elements of the cinematic mythology are solidified during this time period.
Stacey Abbott
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748694907
- eISBN:
- 9781474426725
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748694907.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Twenty-first century film and television is overwhelmed with images of the undead. Vampires and zombies have often been seen as oppositional: one alluring, the other repellent; one seductive, the ...
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Twenty-first century film and television is overwhelmed with images of the undead. Vampires and zombies have often been seen as oppositional: one alluring, the other repellent; one seductive, the other infectious. With case studies of films like I Am Legend, Daybreakers, and 28 Days Later, as well as television programmes like Angel, In the Flesh, and The Walking Dead, this book challenges these popular assumptions and reveals the increasing interconnection of undead genres. Exploring how the figure of the vampire has been infused with the language of science, disease, and apocalypse, while the zombie text has increasingly been influenced by the trope of the ‘reluctant’ vampire, this book shows how both archetypes are actually two sides of the same undead coin. When considered together they present a dystopian, sometimes apocalyptic, vision of twenty-first century existence.Less
Twenty-first century film and television is overwhelmed with images of the undead. Vampires and zombies have often been seen as oppositional: one alluring, the other repellent; one seductive, the other infectious. With case studies of films like I Am Legend, Daybreakers, and 28 Days Later, as well as television programmes like Angel, In the Flesh, and The Walking Dead, this book challenges these popular assumptions and reveals the increasing interconnection of undead genres. Exploring how the figure of the vampire has been infused with the language of science, disease, and apocalypse, while the zombie text has increasingly been influenced by the trope of the ‘reluctant’ vampire, this book shows how both archetypes are actually two sides of the same undead coin. When considered together they present a dystopian, sometimes apocalyptic, vision of twenty-first century existence.
