Hallucination: Philosophy and Psychology

Macpherson, F. and Platchias, D. (Eds.) (2013) Hallucination: Philosophy and Psychology. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, USA. ISBN 9780262019200

Abstract

Reflection on the nature of hallucination has relevance for many traditional philosophical debates concerning the nature of the mind, perception, and our knowledge of the world. In recent years, neuroimaging techniques and scientific findings on the nature of hallucination, combined with interest in new philosophical theories of perception such as disjunctivism, have brought the topic of hallucination once more to the forefront of philosophical thinking. Scientific evidence from psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry sheds light on the functional role and physiology of actual hallucinations; some disjunctivist theories offer a radically new and different philosophical conception of hallucination. This volume offers interdisciplinary perspectives on the nature of hallucination, offering essays by both scientists and philosophers. Contributors first consider topics from psychology and neuroscience, including neurobiological mechanisms of hallucination and the nature and phenomenology of auditory-verbal hallucinations. Philosophical discussions follow, with contributors first considering disjunctivism and then, more generally, the relation between hallucination and the nature of experience.

• Item Type: Edited Books
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Macpherson, Professor Fiona and Platchias, Dr Dimitris
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy
• Publisher: MIT Press
• ISBN: 9780262019200