The Caldron of Consciousness
Motivation, affect and self-organization — An anthology
Netlibrary e-Book – Not for resale
ISBN 9780585461205
These new studies by prominent neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers work toward a coherent framework for understanding emotion and its contribution to the functioning of consciousness in general, as an aspect of self-organizing, embodied subjects. Distinguishing consciousness from unconscious information processing hinges on the role of motivating emotions in all conscious modalities, and how emotional brain processes interact with those traditionally associated with cognitive function. Computationally registering/processing sensory signals (e.g. in the occipital lobe or area V4) by itself does not result in perceptual consciousness, which requires subcortical structures such as amygdala, hypothalamus, and brain stem. This interdisciplinary anthology attempts to understand the complexity of emotional intentionality; why the role of motivation in self-organizing processes is crucial in distinguishing conscious from unconscious processes; how emotions account for ‘agency’; and how an adequate approach to emotion-motivation can address the traditional mind-body problem through a holistic understanding of the conscious, behaving organism.
(Series B)
(Series B)
[Advances in Consciousness Research, 16] 2000. xxii, 276 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 January 2003
Published online on 1 January 2003
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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List of Contributors | pp. vii–viii
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Introduction | pp. ix–xxii
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Part I: The Centrality of Emotion
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Integrating the Physiological and Phenomenological Dimensions of Affect and MotivationRalph D. Ellis | pp. 3–26
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Affective Consciousness and the Instinctual Motor System: The Neural Sources of Sadness and JoyJaak Panksepp | pp. 27–54
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Consciousness, Motivation, and Emotion: Biopsychological ReflectionsBill Faw | pp. 55–90
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Conscious Emotion in a Dynamic System: How I Can Know How I FeelNatika Newton | pp. 91–105
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Part II: Toward an Ecological Science of the Affective Sphere
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The ‘Mind’/‘Body’ Problem and First-Person Process: Three Types of ConceptsEugene T. Gendlin | pp. 109–118
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Dissolving Differences: How to Understand the Competing Approaches to Human EmotionValerie Gray Hardcastle | pp. 119–131
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The Effect of Motivation on the Stream of Consciousness: Generalizing from a Neurocomputational Model of Cingulo-frontal Circuits Controlling Saccadic Eye MovementsMarica Bernstein, Samantha Stiehl and John Bickle | pp. 133–160
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Motivation and Emotion: An Interactive Process ModelMark H. Bickhard | pp. 161–178
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Mind, Brain, and ChaosNicholas Georgalis | pp. 179–201
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Part III: Emotional Learning and Development
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Child Development and the Regulation of Affect and Cognition in Consciousness: A View from Object Relations TheoryPeter Zachar | pp. 205–222
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Emotions: The Fetters of Instincts and the Promise of Dynamic SystemsGary Backhaus | pp. 223–242
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Awareness of Emotions: A Neuropsychological PerspectiveMartin Peper | pp. 243–269
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Index | pp. 271–276
“[...] when consciousness comes to be described as a caldron [...] something hot must be at the center [...] of attention. The target, of course, is emotion, with its cousin, motivation.”
Aldo Mosca, New School University, New York
Cited by (5)
Cited by five other publications
You, Arin, Daniel Fulford & Jonathan E. Butner
Hilpert, Jonathan C. & Gwen C. Marchand
Kaszniak, Alfred W.
2001. Review of Greenfield (2000): The Private Life of the Brain: Emotions, Consciousness, and the Secret of the Self. Consciousness & Emotion 2:2 ► pp. 321 ff. 
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Subjects
Consciousness Research
Linguistics
Philosophy
Psychology
Main BIC Subject
HP: Philosophy
Main BISAC Subject
PHI000000: PHILOSOPHY / General