Why Red Doesn't Sound Like a Bell: Understanding the Feel of Consciousness

The book starts off by looking at visual perception.

Our ability to see turns out to be much more mysterious than one might think. The eye contains many defects which should seriously interfere with vision. Yet we have the impression of seeing the world in glorious panavision and technicolor. Explaining how this can be the case leads to a new idea about what seeing really is. Seeing is not passively receiving information in the brain, but rather a way of interacting with the world. The role of the brain is not to create visual sensation, but to enable the necessary interactions with the world.

This new approach to seeing is extended in the second part of the book to encompass the other senses: hearing, touch, taste and smell. Taking sensory experiences to be modes of interacting with the world explains why these experiences are different in the way they are. It also explains why thoughts or automatic functions in the body, and indeed the vast majority brain functions, are not accompanied by any real feeling.

Platform:

OvidSP

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Product Type:

Book

Author:

O'Regan, J. Kevin

ISBN:

978-0-19-977522-4

Specialty:

• Psychology

Language:

English

Edition:

1st

Pages:

224

Publication Year:

2011