Are dreams conscious experiences occurring during sleep? What exactly would it mean to say that they are? How does the concept of dreaming fit into the framework of concepts commonly used to describe conscious wake states? And how can the analysis of dreaming inform a philosophical theory of subjective experience and self-consciousness? The book proposes a conceptual framework for describing conscious experience in dreams and sketches preliminary answers to these – and many more - questions along the way. In doing so, it draws from different sources, of which the most important are the discuss ... More

Are dreams conscious experiences occurring during sleep? What exactly would it mean to say that they are? How does the concept of dreaming fit into the framework of concepts commonly used to describe conscious wake states? And how can the analysis of dreaming inform a philosophical theory of subjective experience and self-consciousness? The book proposes a conceptual framework for describing conscious experience in dreams and sketches preliminary answers to these – and many more - questions along the way. In doing so, it draws from different sources, of which the most important are the discussion of dreaming in the history of Western philosophy; contemporary philosophical work on dreaming; scientific research on sleep and dreaming; and scientific research on related areas such as mind wandering, bodily experience, full-body illusions, delusions, and self-consciousness. Its primary aim is to (re)locate the concept of dreaming on the map of concepts commonly used to describe standard and altered wake states and to shed light on the relationship between dreaming and waking perception, but also between dreaming and imagining, mind wandering, and delusions. A secondary aim is to provide an introduction to the philosophical discussion on dreaming and scientific dream research. The book gives a comprehensive overview of the philosophical discussion on dreaming in different historical periods, theoretical contexts and philosophical subdisciplines. It also investigates how the philosophical discussion of dreaming and scientific dream research have mutually influenced each other since the discovery of REM sleep.