The Bodily Nature of Consciousness

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In this work, Kathleen V. Wider discusses Jean-Paul Sartre's analysis of consciousness in Being and Nothingness in light of recent work by analytic philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists. She brings together phenomenological and scientific understandings of the nature of consciousness and argues that the two approaches can strengthen and suppport each other. Work on consciousness from two very different philosophical traditions -- the continental and analytic -- contributes to her explanation of the deep-seated intuition that all consciousness is self-consciousness.Belief in the reflexivity of consciousness, which reaches back at least as far as Rene Descartes, has come under increasing attack. Those who would undermine it cite recent and ongoing findings of experimental psychologists and neuroscientists. Wider argues that the philosophical debate tends to proceed with little awareness of the extensive study of consciousness undertaken by continental philosophers during the first half of this century. With her clear explanations of both the Sartrean and contemporary Anglo-American contributions, Wider provides an invaluable map for scholars on both sides, and demonstrates how phenomenology and science both enhance current understanding and explanation of the nature of consciousness.