Lecture 4.4: A Theory of Consciousness

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key theories, philosophers, and distinctions mentioned in Lecture 4.4 regarding the theory of consciousness.

Galen Straussson

The philosopher who stated that denying the existence of conscious experience is the "greatest silliness in the history of human thought."

Positivists, behaviorists, and Wittgenstein

Thinkers who were unwilling to admit talk of the existence of consciousness because they restricted the word "exists" to thing that can be collectively referred to, observed, and tested.

Global Workspace Theory

A functionalist theory by Bernard Bars which posits that consciousness serves for different modular parts of the brain to "broadcast" representational contents publicly to other parts of the brain.

Access Consciousness

The part of consciousness involved in making information accessible for rational deliberation, action, and information processing.

Phenomenal Consciousness

The aspect of consciousness that refers to the experience of "what it is like" to be something, which many functionalist theories are accused of failing to explain.

Higher Order Thought Theory

A theory of consciousness suggesting that to be conscious is to be aware of your own perceptions, or to have a "thought about thought."

Representationalism

A theory stating that phenomenal qualia are properties of external objects represented in experience, such as redness in the world being represented in the mind.

Pain (Representationalist view)

Within representationalism, this is described as a representation of tissue damage, which can be accurate or inaccurate.

Panpsychism

A monist view associated with Spinoza, Bertrand Russell, and Galen Straussson which suggests that physical stuff has intrinsic aspects including conscious experience at the fundamental level.

Emergentism

A view associated with John Stuart Mill, C. B. Broad, and C. Lloyd Morgan stating that phenomenal consciousness is something over and above the physical base from which it naturally emerges.

Direct Realism

A terminological equivalent to representationalism in theories of perception, asserting that perception puts us in direct touch with qualia in the world.

David Chalmers

A philosopher whose current project involves attempting to combine emergentism and panpsychism together.