Sensing Qualia

“Sensing Qualia slays the philosophical monsters of swampmen, zombies, and other threats to materialism that may arise from the existence of qualia. With clear prose and no-nonsense arguments, Skokowski takes us on an entertaining tour of philosophy of mind.” – Craig Callender, University of California, San Diego“Skokowski tackles some of the toughest questions in philosophy of mind. Tracing centuries of debate and critiquing today’s leading theories, he introduces a powerful new framework for understanding our subjective experience. A rigorous and groundbreaking work, this book will reshape how we all think about mind and matter.” – David Eagleman, Stanford University“Where is that conscious you in the brain? Philosophers and scientists have tripped over each other for millennia trying to capture the idea of you in tractable terms. I highly recommend Skokowski’s wonderfully lucid yet detailed account of this debate. Reviewing theories of how the brain enables the ineffable you, Skokowski also gratifyingly proposes an actual biological mechanism. A must-read!” – Michael S. Gazzaniga, University of California, Santa Barbara“Skokowski offers a marvelously comprehensive and accessible account of the debate over consciousness—with insights about history, integrated information theory, quantum mechanics, and AI. Along the way, he gives us his externalist account of qualia, arguing that it makes qualia compatible with materialism.” – Frank Jackson, Australian National University

Paul G. Skokowski is executive director and cofounder of the Center for the Explanation of Consciousness at Stanford University and a fellow in philosophy at St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. He is editor of Information and Mind.