Consciousness and the World

The author presents his theory of consciousness, one of the most fascinating but puzzling aspects of human existence. It's his contention that consciousness consists in a closely knit complex of occurrent mental phenomena and powers with thinking and self-knowledge at the centre - and nothing else. Brian O'Shaughnessy presents a bold original theory of consciousness, one of the most fascinating but puzzling aspects of human existence. He investigates what consciousness is and how it engages, through perception, with the world. Whatever mystery there may be about origins of consciousness, O'Shaughnessy suggests that there is no mystery about what it is. It is his contention that consciousness consists in a closely knit complex of occurrent mental phenomena and powers with thinking and self-knowledge at the centre - and nothing else. He proceeds to give a philosophical elucidation of its nature, analysing it into its constituent psychological parts. He argues that consciousness has a determinate character as an internal but world-oriented phenomenon, and that there exist logically necessary and sufficient conditions for its presence. Though consciousness is an internal state, perception is its very foundation, being the source of the material with which the mind develops, and essential to the processes whereby it does so. O'Shaughnessy continues with an extended summary of the phenomena of perception and attention, examining their their component elements and their relations with consciousness and with the world. He demonstrates how close to the heart of consciousness is perception, envisaged already in the very concept. Perception is portrayed as a journey of the attention from the raw date of the senses outwards into physical reality, The different modes of sensory perception are analysed in turn, to give a full picture of how the mind opens out onto its environment and assembles for itself a representation of outer reality. So it is that the gap is closed between the mental and physical domains, and the epistemological basis of mind is established. Consciousness and the World is a rich and exciting book, a major contribution to our understanding of the mind.

Brian O'Shaughnessy puts forward a bold and original theory of consciousness, one of the most fascinating but puzzling aspects of human existence. He analyses consciousness into purely psychological constituents, according pre-eminence to its epistemological power. Brian O'Shaughnessy puts forward a bold and original theory of consciousness, one of the most fascinating but puzzling aspects of human existence. Whatever mystery there may be about the origins of consciousness, O'Shaughnessy suggests that there is no mystery about what it is. He proceeds to give a philosophical elucidation of its nature, analysing it into purely psychological constituents. It is his contention that consciousness consists in a closely knit complex of occurrent mental phenomena and powers with thinking and self-knowledge at the centre--and nothing else. O'Shaughnessy's analysis accords a position of pre-eminence to the epistemological properties of consciousness. With this in mind he investigates the closely linked concepts of attention and perception alongside that of consciousness. He sets out an integrated theory of these three fundamental phenomena, demonstrating how close to the heart of consciousness is perception, envisaged already in the very concept. In effect he advances en passant a variant of empiricism which is based upon the nature of consciousness. A considerable part of the book is devoted to providing a theoretical account in these terms of those important senses through which the mind constitutes physical objects in space: above all, the highly developed sense of sight, but also the primordial body-senses, proprioception and touch, which underpin all else in the mind. In such ways concrete interaction between consciousness and the world is realized, and the epistemological basis of mind established. Consciousness and the World is a rich and exciting book, a major contribution to our understanding of the mind.