A Place For Consciousness
Probing the Deep Structure of the Natural World
Gregg
Rosenberg
Oxford University Press published "A Place for Consciousness: Probing
the deep structure of the natural world." in November 2004. It is available
through
Amazon.
The book is the culmination of a project spanning more than a decade. It presents a synoptic metaphysics for the natural world that places mind within it in a comfortable and beautiful way. You can find a short and simple visual executive summary of the book's central themes and ideas here. The key arguments and advances in the book are,
A direct argument against the view that consciousness is physical (i.e., an argumet that is not a conceivability or knowledge argument).
A proposal for a view called Liberal Naturalism for understanding the natural world without physicalism.
An argument that we can and should separate a basic concept of experiencing from our specifically mental concept of consciousness.
Several arguments connecting the hard problem of consciousness to the metaphysics of causality.
The introduction of a new paradigm for understanding causality called Causal Significance. The Causal Significance of a thing is the difference its existence makes to the space of possible ways the world can be.
A framework for understanding the deep structure of the natural world as a causal mesh of overlapping natural individuals.
An argument for tying experiencing into the categorical foundations of the causal mesh and a detailed development showing exactly how to do it.
A derivation of solutions to many of the deepest mysteries surrounding the hard problem of consciousness, including Chalmers' "Paradox of Phenomenal Judgment".