Attributions of consciousness

J Sytsma�- A companion to experimental philosophy, 2016 - Wiley Online Library
A companion to experimental philosophy, 2016Wiley Online Library
This chapter focuses on attributions of phenomenal consciousness, leaving to the side
interesting questions about how people attribute other types of consciousness. While
researchers are not in perfect agreement about how the concept of phenomenal
consciousness should be understood, the standard line is that a creature is phenomenally
conscious just in case it has phenomenally conscious mental states, and that a mental state
is phenomenally conscious just in case it has phenomenal qualities. The chapter explores�…
Summary
This chapter focuses on attributions of phenomenal consciousness, leaving to the side interesting questions about how people attribute other types of consciousness. While researchers are not in perfect agreement about how the concept of phenomenal consciousness should be understood, the standard line is that a creature is phenomenally conscious just in case it has phenomenally conscious mental states, and that a mental state is phenomenally conscious just in case it has phenomenal qualities. The chapter explores whether lay people employ the concept of phenomenal consciousness. It begins by looking at the evidence for an affirmative answer to this question, focusing on Joshua Knobe and Jesse Prinz's article, Intuitions About Consciousness: Experimental Studies. The chapter explains the evidence for a negative answer to the target question, focusing on Justin Sytsma and Edouard machery's article, Two Conceptions of Subjective Experience.
Wiley Online Library