Main description:

The phenomenon of consciousness has always been a central question for philosophers and scientists. Emerging in the past decade are new approaches to the understanding of consciousness in a scientific light. This book presents a series of essays by leading thinkers giving an account of the current ideas prevalent in the scientific study of consciousness. The value of the book lies in the discussion of this interesting though complex subject from different points of view ranging from physics and computer science to the cognitive sciences. Reviews of controversial ideas related to the philosophy of mind from western and eastern sources including classical Indian first person methodologies provide a breadth of coverage that has seldom been attempted in a book before. Additionally, chapters relating to the new approaches in computational modeling of higher order cognitive function and consciousness are included. The book is of great value for established as well as young researchers from a wide cross-section of interdisciplinary scientific backgrounds, aiming to pursue research in this field, as well as an informed public.

Contents:

Ralph Freeman: Neurometabolic Coupling in the Central Visual Pathway; Zoltan Dienes: Subjective Measures of Unconscious Knowledge; Axel Cleeremans: The Dynamics of Consciousness : Temporal Factors Shape Interactions Between Conscious and Unconscious Information Processing; Hakwan Lau: Consciousness & Simple Information Processing; Narayanan Srinivasan: Attention and Consciousness; Igor Aleksander: Computational Studies of Consciousness; Nandini Chatterjee Singh: Temporal Processing in Speech Production ? New Insights from a Computational Approach; Sisir Roy and Rudolfo Llinas: Dynamic Geometry, Brain Function Modeling and Consciousness; Bikas K. Chakrabarti: Modelling Neural Networks; Jun ? Ichi Inoue: A Simple Hopfield ? like cellular network model of Plant Intelligence; Klaus Mainzer: The Emergence of Mind and Brain An Evolutionary, Computational and Philosophical Approach; Max Velmans: Separating Conceptual Issues from Empirical Ones in the Study of Consciousness; J. P. Balodhi: Brain, Consciousness & Self : Indian Perspective; Dhananjay Chavan: Vipassana Meditation: Buddha's Tool to Probe Mind and Matter; Rahul Banerjee:Buddha and the Bridging Relations