Taking Phenomenology at Face Value: The Priority of State Consciousness in Light of the For-me-ness of Experience [Special Issue]
Issue: Issue 18 • Author/s: Alberto Barbieri
Topics: Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of mind, Theoretical philosophy
An important distinction lies between consciousness attributed to creatures, or subjects, (creature consciousness) and consciousness attributed to mental states (state consciousness). Most contemporary theories of consciousness aim at explaining what makes a mental state conscious, paying scant attention to the problem of creature consciousness. This attitude relies on a deeper, and generally overlooked, assumption that once an explanation of state consciousness is provided, one has also explained all the relevant features of creature consciousness. I call this the priority of state consciousness thesis (PSC). In this paper, I want to…