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BestsellerE-book
Author Kirk, Robert, 1933- author.

Title Robots, zombies and us : understanding consciousness / Robert Kirk.

Publication Info. London, UK ; New York, NY, USA : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, [2016]

Item Status

Description 1 online resource
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary Could robots be genuinely intelligent? Could they be conscious? Could there be zombies? Prompted by these questions Robert Kirk introduces the main problems of consciousness and sets out a new approach to solving them. He starts by discussing behaviourism, Turing's test of intelligence and Searle's famous Chinese Room argument, and goes on to examine dualism - the idea that consciousness requires something beyond the physical - together with its opposite, physicalism. Probing the idea of zombies, he concludes they are logically impossible. Having presented the central problems, he sketches his solution: a version of functionalism, according to which consciousness consists in the performance of functions. While there is wide agreement among philosophers about what the main problems of consciousness are, there is little agreement on how to go about solving them. With this powerful case for his version of functionalism, Kirk offers an engaging introduction to both the problems and a possible solution.
Contents Cover; Contents; Preface; 1 Introduction; 2 Behaviour is not enough; 3 Machines; 4 Intelligent robots?; 5 Is something non-physical involved?; 6 Zombies; 7 What's wrong with the zombie idea?; 8 The basic package; 9 What's needed on top of the basic package; 10 Functionalism; 11 Functionalism is compulsory; 12 Is there an explanatory gap?; 13 Brains in vats and buckets; References; Index.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Consciousness.
Consciousness.
Functionalism (Psychology)
Functionalism (Psychology)
Zombies -- Miscellanea.
Zombies.
Robots -- Miscellanea.
Miscellanea.
Other minds (Theory of knowledge)
Robots.
Other minds (Theory of knowledge)
PHILOSOPHY -- Movements -- Humanism.
Genre/Form Trivia and miscellanea.
Electronic books.
Other Form: Print version: Kirk, Robert, 1933- Robots, zombies and us. London, UK ; New York, NY, USA : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, [2016] 9781474286589 (DLC) 2016038067 (OCoLC)949819829
ISBN 9781474286602 (electronic book)
1474286607 (electronic book)
9781474286619
1474286615
9781474286589
1474286585