Creations of the Posthuman Mind: Consciousness in Peter Wattsâs Blindsight

Justyna Galant

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Chapter 2 Creations of the Posthuman Mind: Consciousness in Peter Wattsâs Blindsight

In: Explorations of Consciousness in Contemporary Fiction

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Justyna Galant

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 27â37

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004347854_004

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Peter Wattsâs 2006 hard science fiction novel Blindsight explores the process of cognition with reference to self, other and alien, addressing the question of boundary, dealing with the crises of interpersonal and interspecies encounters, which result in the significant changes in self- and other-perception, a re-evaluation of oneâs epistemological capacities and, eventually, a re-shaping of the self.

With consciousness defined in the novel as a parasite and a mistake in the evolutionary process, we are encouraged to separate cognition from consciousness and concentrate on the processes presented in the text rather than on character construction.

The premise of radical constructivism that knowledge cannot be judged on how it represents ontological reality becomes an assumption crucial for exploring the depictions of consciousness in the novel as a text concerned with the creations of the post-human minds, their representational inadequacy and ambiguous relationships with their creators.

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Explorations of Consciousness in Contemporary Fiction

Series:Â Consciousness, Literature and the Arts, Volume: 51

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004347854

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 08 Jul 2017

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Chapter 2 Creations of the Posthuman Mind: Consciousness in Peter Wattsâs Blindsight

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Explorations of Consciousness in Contemporary Fiction

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Chapter 2 Creations of the Posthuman Mind: Consciousness in Peter Wattsâs Blindsight