Consciousness (Critical Concepts in Psychology), Volume 1: The Origins of Psychology and the Study of Consciousness

This is the first of four Volumes in a collection of Major Works on Consciousnesscommissioned by Routledge, London. As the collection forms part of a Critical Concepts in Psychologyseries, this selection of major works focuses mainly on works that have a direct psychologicalrelevance. From the mid 19th Century onwards, psychologybegan to separate itself from philosophy, and the development of psychologicalthought about consciousnesslinks intimately to the development of psychologyitself. In order to trace this development, the four volumes of this collection follow a rough, historical sequence. Volume 1 deals with The Origins of Psychologyand the Study of Consciousness. Volumes 2 and 3 deal with contemporary Cognitive and Neuropsychological Approaches to the Study of Consciousness. And Volume 4 focuses mainly on New Directions: Psychogenesis, Transformations of Consciousnessand Non-reductive, Integrative Theories, which deal with issues likely to expand current, mainstream thought in potentially novel, and, sometimes, challenging directions. The introduction to and the 23 readings in Volume 1 set the stage for the entire, printed collection. They focus on the selection criteria for the collection, the problems presented by consciousnessand how to organize these into groups, the ancient historyof thought about consciousness, mind and soul, the emergence of psychologyas the empirical study of consciousnessand mind, the emergence of behaviorism, cognitive psychologyand the re-emergence of the study of mind, initial ideas about the role of consciousnessin human information processing, the strengths of functionalist accounts of mind, the weaknesses of functionalist accounts of consciousness, competing psychologicaltheories about the nature and function of consciousness, interdisciplinary influences, and the formation of ConsciousnessStudies.