http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3 http://www.loc.gov/standards/mods/v3/mods-3-2.xsd
the nature of attention and how it shapes consciousness
Sebastian Watzl shows that attention is a central structural feature of the mind. The first half of the book provides an account of the nature of attention. Attention is prioritizing, it consists in regulating priority structures. It is not another element of the mind, but constituted by structures that organize, integrate, and coordinate the parts of our mind. It thus integrates the perceptual and intellectual, the cognitive and motivational, and the epistemic and practical. The second half of the book concerns the relationship between attention and consciousness. Watzl argues that attentional structure shapes consciousness into what is central and what is peripheral. The center-periphery structure of consciousness cannot be reduced to the structure of how the world appears to the subject. What it is like for us thus goes beyond the way the world appears to us. On this basis, a new view of consciousness is offered. In each conscious experience we actively take a stance on the world we appear to encounter. It is in this sense that our conscious experience is our subjective perspective.
Introduction: structure in mind: Attention regained -- The nature of attention, and how it shapes consciousness -- Attention and philosophy -- Methods -- Reading Guide -- Part I: What is attention?: Beyond brain mechanisms: attention is a subject-level phenomenon -- Attending: why attention is a mental activity -- Activities: temporal shape and guiding form -- Priority structures: how attention organizes the mind -- The what and why of priority structures: interpretation and functional role -- Psychological salience: passive attention guidance -- Executive control: active attention guidance -- Part II: Attention and consciousness -- Beyond appearances: the phenomenal contributions of attention -- Phenomenal structure: center and periphery-fringe, field, and margin -- Phenomenal salience: the dynamics of attention and the flowing stream -- Awareness of attending: agentive awareness and introspective knowledge -- Necessity and sufficiency: the inconclusive empirical case for a one-sided dependency -- The perspectivity picture: why attention is essential to phenomenal consciousness -- Bibliography -- Index.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2017