BRIGHT AIR BRILLIANT FIRE (Basic, 1992)
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(Copyright © 2000 Piero Scaruffi | Legal restrictions - Termini d'uso )
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The book summarizes Edelman's theory of neural development and consciousness formation. In practice, Edelman extends an account of the development of perceptual categories into a general account of consciousness.
The reentry mechanism between maps yields a process of "global mapping" that leads to the creation of perceptual categories and generalization. Edelman distinguishes between primary consciousness (imagery and sensations) and higher-order consciousness (language and self-consciousness). Primary consciousness requires memory (a process of both storing and recategorizing), value (a way to rank stimuli and eventually to learn), discrimination of the self from the non-self, a way to represent chronology, and global reentrant pathways connecting all these structures. Higher-order consciousness. Edelman thinks that science cannot solve the problem of qualia because no two people will ever have the same qualia (but does not show any evidence that no two people have the same qualia). |
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