David Chalmers just posted a round-up of recent books on consciousness. To my great annoyance, it looks like a wonderful list of must-read books. ((Fortunately I already have a couple of them, including the Galen Strawson article and rebuttals. See, I’m already saving money!)) Time to check my book-buying budget. One volume in particular stands out:
Contemporary Debates in the Philosophy of Mind, edited by Brian McLaughlin and Jonathan Cohen. This consists of ten pairs of articles, taking each side of central topics in the philosophy of mind: e.g. Tye vs Shoemaker on representationalism, Jackson vs McLaughlin on a priori physicalism, Kim vs Loewer on mental causation, Fodor vs Heck on nonconceptual content, Segal vs Sawyer on narrow content, Prinz vs Peacocke on nonperceptual consciousness, and so on.
I’m a sucker for this kind of quasi-debate format. Think of There’s Something About Mary, or Views Into The Chinese Room. Of course I’ve already pre-ordered Chalmers’ The Character of Consciousness ((h/t to oz)) – a little something to look forward to next March…