Consciousness
Consciousness is the philosophical study of subjective experience: what it is, why it exists, and how it fits into the physical world.
Definition
Consciousness, in the philosophically central sense, is the property of there being something it is like to be a subject in a given mental state, encompassing subjective experience and awareness.
Scope
This area covers the distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness, the hard problem of explaining experience, the nature of qualia, the major scientific and philosophical theories of consciousness, and self-consciousness and introspection. It concerns both the metaphysics and the epistemology of awareness.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- What is it for a mental state to be conscious?
- How do phenomenal and access consciousness differ?
- Why is there subjective experience at all, given physical processes?
- Which theory best explains how and when consciousness arises?
Key concepts
- phenomenal consciousness
- access consciousness
- qualia
- what-it-is-like
- hard problem
- introspection
Key theories
- The subjective character of experience
- Conscious states have a what-it-is-like character that is irreducibly subjective and resists capture by objective physical description.
- Phenomenal versus access consciousness
- Phenomenal consciousness is experiential feel, whereas access consciousness is the availability of information for reasoning and control; the two come apart conceptually.
History
Nagel's 1974 essay reframed consciousness around the subjective point of view, and Block's distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness sharpened the explanandum. Chalmers's 1995 formulation of the hard problem set the agenda for late twentieth-century debate, against which deflationary accounts such as Dennett's (1991) push back.
Debates
- The reality of the hard problem
- Whether explaining subjective experience poses a problem distinct in kind from explaining cognitive functions, or whether the apparent gap dissolves on closer analysis.
- Phenomenal versus access
- Whether phenomenal consciousness can occur without access, and how to study experience that is not reportable.
Key figures
- Thomas Nagel
- David Chalmers
- Ned Block
- Daniel Dennett
Related topics
Seminal works
- nagel1974
- block1995
- chalmers1995
- dennett1991
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between consciousness and the mind?
- The mind includes all mental states and processes, many of which are unconscious, whereas consciousness refers specifically to those states with subjective experiential character or awareness.