What do out of body experiences tell us about self-consciousness; Or, Disorders of Self-Consciousness Part 5

Another attempt at popularising my work from over at idontknowwhatiam “I awoke at night – it must have been about 3am – and realized that I was completely unable to move. I was absolutely certain I was not dreaming, as I was enjoying full consciousness. Filled with fear about my …

Confabulatory explanations

Here are some examples of confabulatory explanations in the clinical population. In anosognosia people deny some serious impairment. When a person with a paralysed leg is asked why she cannot climb stairs, she may say she suffers from arthritis and she is less mobile as a result. In the Capgras delusion, people believe …

Epistemic definitions of delusion and confabulation

In my previous post I suggested that the epistemic faults listed in most definitions of delusions are not distinctive of delusions. Although delusions may diverge from norms of rationality to a greater extent than non-delusional beliefs, they are irrational in no special way. Excessively positive beliefs about ourselves, and widespread …

CFP: Mind, Brain, and Experience

I’ve been asked to assist in distributing this CFP: *** CALL FOR PAPERS *** “Mind, Brain, and Experience:At the Intersections of Philosophy, Science, and Medicine” April 10-11, 2008Denver, Colorado hosted by University of Colorado Denver Department of Philosophywith support  fromUniversity of Colorado President’s Fund for the HumanitiesandUniversity of Colorado Center …

Feeling Someone Behind You Who Is Not There

Culture Dish comments on a fascinating finding by Swiss researchers, published in Nature and reported by the National Geographic.  “[A]s a result of focal electrical stimulation of the left temporoparietal junction,” … they induced “[t]he strange sensation that somebody is nearby when no one is actually present”.

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