Summary of Christof Koch's The Feeling of Life Itself

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Consciousness is experience. It is the feeling of life itself. It is the only bit of eternity to which I am entitled. Without experience, I would be a zombie, a nothing to myself.

#2 The world is a product of my experiences and inferences about those experiences. I take these inferences completely for granted, and I am so accustomed to them that I don’t even consider them to be inferences.

#3 The majority of researchers agree that consciousness is experience, but some philosophers, such as the Churchlands, believe that consciousness is an illusion that must be overcome. They believe that if people would only realize that they are confused about the true nature of their experiences, suffering would disappear altogether.

#4 The nineteenth-century physicist Ernst Mach was an ardent student of phenomenology, the study of the way the world appears to us. My experience exists for itself, without the need for anything external, such as an observer. Any theory of consciousness will have to reflect this intrinsic reality.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 3, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822528826

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Insights on Christof Koch's The Feeling of Life Itself

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Consciousness is experience. It is the feeling of life itself. It is the only bit of eternity to which I am entitled. Without experience, I would be a zombie, a nothing to myself.

#2

The world is a product of my experiences and inferences about those experiences. I take these inferences completely for granted, and I am so accustomed to them that I don’t even consider them to be inferences.

#3

The majority of researchers agree that consciousness is experience, but some philosophers, such as the Churchlands, believe that consciousness is an illusion that must be overcome. They believe that if people would only realize that they are confused about the true nature of their experiences, suffering would disappear altogether.

#4

The nineteenth-century physicist Ernst Mach was an ardent student of phenomenology, the study of the way the world appears to us. My experience exists for itself, without the need for anything external, such as an observer. Any theory of consciousness will have to reflect this intrinsic reality.

#5

The definition of seeing as simply acting on incoming electromagnetic radiation in a particular part of the spectrum is too limited, as it only makes sense for other conscious creatures. It is difficult to define consciousness objectively, but that doesn’t mean we should give up on the quest for a science of it.

#6

Any experience has distinctions within it. The experience of my Bernese mountain dog, Ruby, is structured and composed of many internal phenomenal distinctions. I can’t decompose those sensations into more primitive atomic elements.

#7

The five properties of any conscious experience are: it is distinct, it is unitary, it is informative, it is integrated, and it is definite in content and spatiotemporal grain.

#8

The five properties of any conscious experience are that it exists for itself, it is structured, it is the specific way