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

Title Robots, zombies and us : understanding consciousness / Robert Kirk
Published London, UK ; New York, NY, USA : Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, Plc, [2016]

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Description 1 online resource
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
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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Consciousness.
Functionalism (Psychology)
Zombies -- Miscellanea
Robots -- Miscellanea
Other minds (Theory of knowledge)
Consciousness
PHILOSOPHY -- Movements -- Humanism.
Consciousness
Functionalism (Psychology)
Other minds (Theory of knowledge)
Robots
Zombies
Genre/Form Trivia and miscellanea
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781474286602
1474286607
9781474286619
1474286615