The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness

1 The Rationale

There has been an explosion of work on consciousness in the last few decades from

philosophers, psychologists, and neurologists. Because of the large volume and interdis-

ciplinary nature of this research, there is a need for a wide-ranging collection of essays

that brings together fundamental and cutting-edge topics on consciousness, making their

philosophical import understandable to researchers with various backgrounds. Such an

approach can also appeal to upper-level undergraduates, who may have had only one or

two courses in philosophy. The Routledge Handbook of Consciousness will work as a valu-

able reference for such students enrolled in courses on “Consciousness,” “Philosophy of

Mind,” or “Philosophy of Psychology,” designed to complement and better explain primary

sources. Even seasoned philosophers of mind and philosophers of psychology will likely

find this book useful, since it is very difficult to claim expertise in all of the areas covered.

Still, the overall emphasis is to introduce the uninitiated to cutting-edge interdisciplinary

work, which is at least one way that this collection will stand out among its competitors.^1

Of course, due to the very nature of some topics, some chapters are understandably more

advanced or technical than others.

Consciousness is arguably the most important area within contemporary philosophy

of mind. It is also perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the world, despite the fact that it

is so very familiar to each of us. Although some features of mental states can perhaps be

explained without reference to consciousness, it is consciousness which seems most resist-

ant to a straightforward explanation. Can conscious experience be explained in terms of

brain activity? Is the conscious mind physical or non-physical? What is the relationship

between consciousness and attention or between consciousness and free will? What do

psychopathologies and disorders of consciousness tell us about the normal conscious mind?

Are animals conscious? Could a robot be conscious? These and many other questions are

explored in the chapters that follow. Although there is much of contemporary interest on

consciousness in Eastern thought, especially Indian philosophy (e.g. Siderits et al. 2011;

Coseru 2012), virtually all chapters in this volume are restricted to Western philosophy and

fairly recent work in philosophy of mind.^2

INTRODUCTION

Rocco J. Gennaro

Rocco J. Gennaro Introduction