How Could Conscious Experiences Affect Brains? by Max Velmans

How Could Conscious Experiences Affect Brains? by Max Velmans

In daily life we take it for granted that our minds have conscious control of our actions, at least for most of the time. But many scientists and philosophers deny that this is really the case, because there is no generally accepted theory of how the mind interacts with the body. Max Velmans presents a non-reductive solution to the problem, in which 'conscious mental control' includes 'voluntary' operations of the preconscious mind. On this account, biological determinism is compatible with experienced free will. Velmans' theory is put to the test by nine critics: Ron Chrisley, Todd Feinberg, Jeffrey Gray, John Kihlstrom, Sam Rakover, Ramakrishna Rao, Aaron Sloman, Steve Torrance and Robert Van Gulick.

Max Velmans is currently Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, Visiting Professor of Consciousness Studies at the University of Plymouth. He has been researching, writing and teaching consciousness studies for over 30 years and has over 90 publications in this area.