In a series of feisty and ultimately hopeful essays, one of America's sharpest social critics casts a shrewd eye over contemporary culture to reveal the... worst -- and the best -- of our habits of discourse, tendencies in education, and obsessions with technological novelty. Readers will find themselves rethinking many of their bedrock assumptions: Should education transmit culture or defend us against it? Is technological innovation progress or a peculiarly American addiction? When everyone watches the same television programs -- and television producers don't discriminate between the audiences for Sesame Street and Dynasty -- is childhood anything more than a sentimental concept? Writing in the traditions of Orwell and H.L. Mencken, Neil Postman sends shock waves of wit and critical intelligence through the cultural wasteland.

Indispensable for new teacher induction or regular staff development, this resource incorporates meaningful stories, insights, humor, and invaluable... strategies for what really works in the classroom.

"[This] book takes a magnifying glass to great teaching, revealing the key assumptions that allow teachers to organize their teaching and discipline... students in ways that invite student cooperation."—From the Foreword by Spence Rogers, Founder and DirectorPeak Learning Systems"Rick Smith peeks behind the invisible veil of good teaching to discover numerous enlightening classical concepts and techniques that all teachers can use to become better at their craft."—Rick CurwinAuthor, Discipline with Dignity"Rick Smith has the power to engage any learner. His deep understanding of how we learn, his highly nuanced, empathetic humor, and his gentle regard for fellow learners of any age combine to provide the reader with ‘aha after aha.’"—Bea Warner, Staff Development DirectorEscondido, CAMake your job easier! Find out what really works for effective classroom management and reap the benefits of engaged and productive students!Conscious Classroom Management is a delightfully rich text that incorporates meaningful stories, insights, humor, and invaluable strategies for what really works in the classroom. And while classroom management is the primary factor behind how successful teachers can achieve sustained student learning, this wonderful text also addresses the human elements of teaching, focusing on three primary subjects: the students, the teacher, and the relationship between the two. Comprehensive and practical, Conscious Classroom Management helps teachers to:Eliminate power struggles with your most challenging students Discover how holding your ground can help students cooperate Uncover your teacher presence while reducing stress Create lessons that help students remain focused, eager, and willing to learn Appreciate your craft at a deeper level Think ahead and prepare to teach Energize and invigorate how you mentor and train other teachersFor the novice, first-year teacher to the veteran, classroom-tested teacher, classroom management is the most critical factor for sustained student learning. And eliminating the cycle of student misbehavior is the cornerstone for effective classroom management. This reference transcends every level of preparation and provides new and experienced teachers with the practical and comprehensive strategies necessary to get the most out of every student. Written in an easy-to-read and humorous, conversational style, this resource is indispensable for new teacher induction or regular staff development.

This book presents a novel and comprehensive theory of consciousness. The initial chapter distinguishes six main forms of consciousness and sketches an... account of each one. Later chapters focus on phenomenal consciousness, consciousness of, and introspective consciousness. In discussing phenomenal consciousness, Hill develops the representational theory of mind in new directions, arguing that all awareness involves representations, even awareness of qualitative states like pain. He then uses this view to undercut dualistic accounts of qualitative states. Other topics include visual awareness, visual appearances, emotional qualia, and meta-cognitive processing. This important work will interest a wide readership of students and scholars in philosophy of mind and cognitive science.

This collection of essays on integral medicine, consciousness, and healing integrates mainstream medical knowledge with recent developments in the... emerging areas of frontier sciences and insights from alternative healing perspectives. It promotes a model of healing in which personal relationships, emotions, meaning, and belief systems are viewed as fundamental points of connection between body, mind, spirit, society, and nature. Integral medicine embraces the recognition that human beings possess emotional, spiritual, and relational dimensions that are essential in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and the cultivation of wellness.Readers learn from the leaders in the emerging field of integral medicine and consciousness research, from the most well known (Deepak Chopra), to the frontline policy makers (James Gordon-one of the heads of the White House Commission on Conventional and Complementary and Alternative Medicine). Readers also gain insights from health professionals who have experienced healing within themselves and witnessed remarkable healing in their patients. We hear from other medical professionals (through the essays and the interviews on the accompanying DVD) who approach medicine from an array of cultural perspectives, and can attest to this multicultural, interdisciplinary, and participatory healing system in action. Consciousness and Healing contains 47 essays in the book plus 9 bonus essays read aloud on the DVD. Essays are short and in language suited to an audience of both lay and professional readers, with extensive references on the DVD to original scientific studies for those interested in further exploration.The most comprehensive and authoritative collection of work on the subject of healing.Joins subjective mind-body experiences with evidence-based research.Comprehensive view of healing as a complex system - something few texts do from such an interdisciplinary, multidimensional, and scientific perspective.The editors build on over 30 years of research in the area of mind-body medicine and consciousnessThe DVD packaged with this product contains 50 minutes of video interviews with many of the high-profile leaders who contribute to this book, as well as practitioners in the medical field who do not contribute to this book, but who do subscribe to its philosophy. It also contains 9 essays (read aloud) that are not in the book. References and the book's table of contents are on the DVD in Microsoft Word format.Essays are written in a conversational style allowing the thoughts of the contributors on the transformation of medicine to be projected in their own voice.Editors and contributors are on the forefront of the field of integrative medicine.Subject is timely; this book takes CAM one-step further by providing physicians with a vision for the future.

H. Stuart Hughes was perhaps the greatest chronicler of the modern intellectual history of Europe. His monumental work, Consciousness and Society, was... a benchmark. The original publication of the book marks the first time an author undertook with such power or so broad a scope the canvas used by the generation of 1890's Europe. When it was first published, Consciousness and Society was greeted with much respect and admiration. It still affects the way historians and political theorists approach their work.   Hughes' ideas, and the way they are expressed in Consciousness and Society, have become paradigms of twentieth-century scholarship. In dealing with the changing social thought after 1890 in Europe, Hughes covers a wide array of thinkers and issues in a scholarly, yet graceful manner. His is a study of the "cluster of genius" of Europe at that time: Croce, Durkheim, Freud, Weber, and Nietzsche, as well as other great European minds. The book explores questions that are still relevant in today's society: Is the separation of facts and values tenable, or even desirable? Can rationality accommodate the ideas of a Bergson or a Freud? Is there, or should there be, a relationship between science and religion? And does history have any ultimate meaning for later generations? Consciousness and Society was the first of a trilogy, the latter two being The Obstructed Path and The Sea Change. While the subsequent studies are also groundbreaking and significant works, it was Consciousness and Society that established Hughes' rank in the field of intellectual history. Hughes approaches his subjects, as he later did with pertinent issues of the twentieth-century, with both reason and compassion. This edition includes an elegant new introduction by the distinguished political scientist Stanley Hoffmann.  

Over the past three decades, the challenge that conscious experience poses to physicalism--the widely held view that the universe is a completely... physical system--has provoked a growing debate in philosophy of mind studies and given rise to a great deal of literature on the subject.Ideal for courses in consciousness and the philosophy of mind, Consciousness and the Mind-Body Problem: A Reader presents thirty-six classic and contemporary readings, organized into five sections that cover the major issues in this debate: the challenge for physicalism, physicalist responses, alternative responses, the significance of ignorance, and mental causation. Edited by Torin Alter and Robert J. Howell, the volume features work from such leading figures as Karen Bennett, Ned Block, David J. Chalmers, Frank Jackson, Colin McGinn, David Papineau, and many others. It is enhanced by a thorough general introduction by the editors, which explains "the hard problem of consciousness"--the question of how any physical phenomenon could give rise to conscious experience. The introduction also provides historical and conceptual background and explains how the consciousness/mind-body problem is related to such theories as the identity theory, dualism, and functionalism. In addition, accessible introductions outline the themes and readings contained in each section.

In this book, Derk Pereboom explores how physicalism might best be formulated and defended against the best anti-physicalist arguments. Two responses to... the knowledge and conceivability arguments are set out and developed. The first exploits the open possibility that introspective representations fail to represent mental properties as they are in themselves; specifically, that introspection represents phenomenal properties as having certain characteristic qualitative natures, which these properties might actually lack. The second response draws on the proposal that currently unknown fundamental intrinsic properties provide categorical bases for known physical properties and would also yield an account of consciousness. While there are non-physicalist versions of this position, some are amenable to physicalism. The book's third theme is a defense of a nonreductive account of physicalism. The type of nonreductivism endorsed departs from others in that it rejects all token identity claims for psychological and microphysical entities. The deepest relation between the mental and the microphysical is constitution, where this relation is not to be explicated by the notion of identity.

Now in a new edition, this innovative text is the first volume to bring together all the major theories of consciousness studies--from those rooted in... traditional Western philosophy to those coming out of neuroscience, quantum theory, and Eastern philosophy. Broadly interdisciplinary, Consciousness: An Introduction, Second Edition, is divided into nine sections that examine such topics as how subjective experiences arise from objective brain processes, the basic neuroscience and neuropathology of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, mystical experiences and dreams, and the effects of drugs and meditation. It also discusses the nature of self, the possibility of artificial consciousness in robots, and the question of whether or not animals are conscious.PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES* Profiles of important philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, and biologists involved in consciousness studies* "Concept" text boxes that elucidate specific aspects of consciousness* "Practice" and "Activity" text boxes that encourage students to engage in practical exercises in class and at home* Bold marginal quotations that emphasize key ideas, and suggestions for further readingNEW TO THIS EDITION* Cutting-edge coverage of out-of-body experiences (Chapter 24), meditation (Chapter 26), and machine consciousness (Section 6)* A revised and enhanced art program featuring more than 230 photos, illustrations, and tables* A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/blackmore offering links to online resources and new and emerging research; self-assessment exercises for students and instructors; and more information on the book's "Practice" text boxes and exercises

In this thought-provoking book, neurologist Adam Zeman offers an enlightening view of consciousness seen through the lenses of science and philosophy,... enhancing his discussion with case studies of neurological patients and observations of young children’s expanding mental worlds.“An articulate . . . neurologist . . . covers many aspects of consciousness for general readers. His treatment of the disorders of knowledge is superb. If you were intrigued with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, you’ll appreciate [the book’s] buildup to what Oliver Sacks described in that work. . . . Approachable and instructive.”—William H. Calvin, New York Times Book Review “A grand tour of the terrain of consciousness, as viewed from neuroscientific and philosophical perspectives.”—Colin Beer, Quarterly Review of Biology“[Zeman] is uniquely qualified to write this particular book, whose chief merit is that it provides a summary of the current state of play in neurobiology, psychology, and philosophy. . . . A very useful book.”—John R. Searle, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"The last great mystery for science," consciousness has become a controversial topic. Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction challenges readers to... reconsider key concepts such as personality, free will, and the soul. How can a physical brain create our experience of the world? What creates our identity? Do we really have free will? Could consciousness itself be an illusion? Exciting new developments in brain science are opening up these debates, and the field has now expanded to include biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers. This book clarifies the potentially confusing arguments and clearly describes the major theories, with illustrations and lively cartoons to help explain the experiments. Topics include vision and attention, theories of self, experiments on action and awareness, altered states of consciousness, and the effects of brain damage and drugs. This lively, engaging, and authoritative book provides a clear overview of the subject that combines the perspectives of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience--and serves as a much-needed launch pad for further exploration of this complicated and unsolved issue.About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

The national bestseller chosen by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 1991 is now available in paperback. The author of... Brainstorms, Daniel C. Dennett replaces our traditional vision of consciousness with a new model based on a wealth of fact and theory from the latest scientific research.

We are material beings in a material world, but we are also beings who have experiences and feelings. How can these subjective states be just a matter... of matter? To defend materialism, philosophical materialists have formulated what is sometimes called "the phenomenal-concept strategy," which holds that we possess a range of special concepts for classifying the subjective aspects of our experiences. In Consciousness Revisited, the philosopher Michael Tye, until now a proponent of the the phenomenal-concept strategy, argues that the strategy is mistaken.A rejection of phenomenal concepts leaves the materialist with the task of finding some other strategy for defending materialism. Tye points to four major puzzles of consciousness that arise: How is it possible for Mary, in the famous thought experiment, to make a discovery when she leaves her black-and-white room? In what does the explanatory gap consist and how can it be bridged? How can the hard problem of consciousness be solved? How are zombies possible? Tye presents solutions to these puzzles -- solutions that relieve the pressure on the materialist created by the failure of the phenomenal-concept strategy. In doing so, he discusses and makes new proposals on a wide range of issues, including the nature of perceptual content, the conditions necessary for consciousness of a given object, the proper understanding of change blindness, the nature of phenomenal character and our awareness of it, whether we have privileged access to our own experiences, and, if we do, in what such access consists.

The study of consciousness is recognized as one of the biggest remaining challenges to the scientific community. This book provides a fascinating... introduction to the new science that promises to illuminate our understanding of the subject. Consciousness covers all the main approaches to the modern scientific study of consciousness, and also gives the necessary historical, philosophical and conceptual background to the field. Current scientific evidence and theory from the fields of neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, brain imaging and the study of altered states of consciousness such as dreaming, hypnosis, meditation and out-of-body experiences is presented. Revonsuo provides an integrative review of the major existing philosophical and empirical theories of consciousness and identifies the most promising areas for future developments in the field. This textbook offers a readable and timely introduction to the science of consciousness for anyone interested in this compelling area, especially undergraduates studying psychology, philosophy, cognition, neuroscience and related fields.