Attention, Not Self

Jonardon Ganeri's Attention, Not Self is groundbreaking. It shows a way to transform the rich theoretical vocabulary in Pāli commentarial tradition for concepts of mind, consciousness, and conscious states into an empirically informed philosophy of mind. The book is focused on commentaries attributed to a single philosopher, the fifth-century Theravāda monk Buddhaghosa. The title of the book should not mislead one into thinking that it is yet another contribution to the literature on the Buddhist no-self theories or to the literature on attention in philosophy of mind and consciousness. Instead, it is a dense and serious exploration of foundational issues in the philosophy of mind, consciousness, and self with an eye most especially on the role of attention. The book is genuinely cross-cultural and multidisciplinary and is aimed at contemporary professional philosophers of mind. It requires close and careful reading. It needs an appreciation of issues in analytical and phenomenological...