{"product_id":"consciousness-theories-explained-alan-bennett-9798247395645","title":"Consciousness Theories Explained: Philosophy, Neuroscience, Quantum Proposals and Artificial Intelligence.","description":"\u003ci\u003eConsciousness Theories Explained: Philosophy, Neuroscience, Quantum Proposals and Artificial Intelligence\u003c\/i\u003e offers a clear, disciplined, and wide-ranging examination of one of the most enduring problems in human thought: what consciousness is, what it explains, and what it may ultimately resist explaining.\u003cbr\u003eRather than advancing a new theory, this book evaluates the major frameworks through which consciousness has been understood, from classical philosophy to contemporary neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and speculative quantum models. Its guiding concern is not enthusiasm or novelty, but standards: what counts as evidence, what qualifies as explanation, and where confidence outruns justification.\u003cbr\u003eThe book begins by clarifying what is meant by consciousness itself. It distinguishes conscious experience from intelligence, behaviour, information processing, and reportability, and shows why many debates falter by conflating these distinct questions. Drawing on legal analogies, it introduces disciplined criteria for assessing explanatory claims, separating correlation from causation, description from explanation, and confidence from proof.\u003cbr\u003eA substantial philosophical section traces the inheritance shaping modern discussions. From Aristotle's integrated view of mind and life, through the Cartesian separation of mind and body, empiricist accounts of experience and personal identity, and Kant's analysis of the limits of explanation, the book shows how contemporary puzzles arise from earlier conceptual decisions rather than from scientific ignorance alone. The \"hard problem\" of consciousness is reconsidered in this historical and methodological light, not dismissed, but placed within a longer tradition of reflective restraint.\u003cbr\u003eThe book then turns to modern scientific and theoretical models. It examines leading neuroscientific approaches, including Global Workspace Theory, Integrated Information Theory, Higher-Order Thought theories, and Recurrent Processing accounts, asking what each genuinely explains and what remains untouched. It considers why quantum explanations repeatedly re-emerge, what they would need to demonstrate to succeed, and why many fall short of their ambitions.\u003cbr\u003eLater chapters explore consciousness at its boundaries: anaesthesia, coma, disorders of consciousness, fragmented mental states, and near-death experiences. These cases test the limits of inference from behaviour and brain activity, revealing how easily absence of response can be mistaken for absence of experience.\u003cbr\u003eThe final sections address artificial intelligence, simulation, and machine consciousness, carefully separating intelligence from experience and examining what evidence would be required before attributing consciousness, responsibility, or moral status to artificial systems. Legal and ethical implications are treated seriously, without speculative excess.\u003cbr\u003eThroughout, the book maintains a consistent tone of intellectual humility. Consciousness is treated not as a puzzle on the verge of final solution, but as a layered problem sitting at the intersection of experience, explanation, and responsibility. The result is a rigorous, accessible, and disciplined guide for readers seeking clarity rather than slogans.\u003cbr\u003eWritten by an Australian lawyer and former academic, \u003cb\u003eConsciousness Theories Explained\u003c\/b\u003e will appeal to readers interested in philosophy of mind, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, ethics, and the standards by which complex claims should be judged.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Alan Bennett\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798247395645\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/08\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 278\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.83lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d","brand":"Alan Bennett","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48997475025151,"sku":"9798247395645","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/consciousness-theories-explained-alan-bennett-9798247395645","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}