The relationship between consciousness, our thoughts, and other mental states is both highly complex and imperfectly understood. In this volume of essays, leading philosopher of mind David Rosenthal develops theories of consciousness, thought, and sensation and shows how those theories interact and reinforce one another. The essays explore issues about the function of consciousness, the individuation of sensory modalities, the way we are aware of our mental lives, the consciousness of nonhuman animals, and methodological issues about how to understand and explain consciousness and mentality. The result is a unified theoretical account of mind, consciousness, and mental functioning, which will interest a range of readers in philosophy, cognitive science, experimental psychology cognitive psychology, and neuroscience.

‘I consider David Rosenthal a leading philosopher of mind, a man with penetrating insights and a willingness to buck orthodoxy. Though his work is scattered across a number of journals and collections, he is a systematic philosopher who does not dive into isolated problems; he has been constructing a coherent approach to mind that does not ignore any of the important aspects of that fascinating phenomenon. Collecting his recent work in a single volume will be a great aid to future work in the philosophy of mind.'

Willem deVries - University of New Hampshire