Describing inner experience? proponent meets skeptic

The result is an illumination of major issues in the study of consciousness--from two sides at once

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hurlburt, Russell T.
Other Authors: Schwitzgebel, Eric
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press 2007
Series:Life and mind
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: MIT Press eBook Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 03310nmm a2200397 u 4500
001 EB002071054
003 EBX01000000000000001211144
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 220922 ||| eng
020 |a 9781435609075 
020 |a 0262275937 
020 |a 1435609077 
020 |a 9780262275934 
050 4 |a BF311 
100 1 |a Hurlburt, Russell T. 
245 0 0 |a Describing inner experience?  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b proponent meets skeptic  |c Russell T. Hurlburt, Eric Schwitzgebel 
260 |a Cambridge, Mass.  |b MIT Press  |c 2007 
300 |a viii, 322 pages 
653 |a Introspection 
653 |a COGNITIVE SCIENCES/Psychology/Cognitive Psychology 
653 |a COGNITIVE SCIENCES/General 
653 |a Consciousness 
700 1 |a Schwitzgebel, Eric 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b MITArchiv  |a MIT Press eBook Archive 
490 0 |a Life and mind 
500 |a "A Bradford book." 
028 5 0 |a 10.7551/mitpress/7517.001.0001 
776 |z 0262083663 
776 |z 9780262083669 
856 4 0 |u https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/7517.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 153 
520 |a The result is an illumination of major issues in the study of consciousness--from two sides at once 
520 |a A psychologist and a philosopher with opposing viewpoints discuss the extent to which it is possible to report accurately on our own conscious experience, considering both the reliability of introspection in general and the particular self-reported inner experiences of "Melanie," a subject interviewed using the Descriptive Experience Sampling method. Can conscious experience be described accurately? Can we give reliable accounts of our sensory experiences and pains, our inner speech and imagery, our felt emotions? The question is central not only to our humanistic understanding of who we are but also to the burgeoning scientific field of consciousness studies. The two authors of Describing Inner Experience disagree on the answer: Russell Hurlburt, a psychologist, argues that improved methods of introspective reporting make accurate accounts of inner experience possible; Eric Schwitzgebel, a philosopher, believes that any introspective reporting is inevitably prone to error.  
520 |a In this book the two discuss to what extent it is possible to describe our inner experience accurately. Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel recruited a subject, "Melanie," to report on her conscious experience using Hurlburt's Descriptive Experience Sampling method (in which the subject is cued by random beeps to describe her conscious experience). The heart of the book is Melanie's accounts, Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel's interviews with her, and their subsequent discussions while studying the transcripts of the interviews. In this way the authors' dispute about the general reliability of introspective reporting is steadily tempered by specific debates about the extent to which Melanie's particular reports are believable. Transcripts and audio files of the interviews will be available on the MIT Press website. Describing Inner Experience? is not so much a debate as it is a collaboration, with each author seeking to refine his position and to replace partisanship with balanced critical judgment.